Possible Promises
by Kairikiani
Summary: The adepts must go to Vale to get an artifact for their journey.  Unfortunately, Karst and Agatio are out for blood, the mayor insists that lighting the Mars Lighthouse will destroy the world, and Felix has too many secrets for his own good.
1. Misplaced Faith

_Disclaimer: I do not own Golden Sun, its characters, its Djinn, etc. If I did, Ivan, Mia, Sheba, Piers, and Felix would have all had face time in Dark Dawn._

I'm evil for posting this. The principle reason I'm evil is that there is only about a 5% chance that I'll have any time to give to this fic. Don't get me wrong: I have it all planned out; it's just that due to various circumstances, I won't have time to update until July. You can go ahead and read the first two chapters, but don't expect any updates until mid-summer.

The second reason I'm evil is because of all the horrible things I'm about to do to Felix.

A short preview for future chapters: The group is headed towards Vale to get an artifact they need to unlock the Mars lighthouse. Unfortunately, thanks to Felix's "grand exit" from before, the townspeople aren't exactly fond of him. The adepts must keep Felix's identity a secret, find a way to convince the mayor to abandon his duty and help light the last lighthouse, defend Vale from Karst and Agatio, all while dealing with a cornucopia of relationship drama.

I can't tell you which pairings I'm going to use, because that's part of the mystery. Rest assured that though Felix has been designated as the main character, the other group members will get their share of the spotlight. I'm not sure, but I might even have a pairing in here that hasn't been done yet...(By pairing, I mean hints at a relationship, not a guarantee that those characters will end up together. You'll recognize it when it shows up.).

Arg, I'm advertising chapters I haven't even written yet. See, I told you I'm evil. As proof of my utter heartlessness, read on.

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Chapter 1: Misplaced Faith

The scene was perfect, as if someone had painted it just for her. The dim gold of the setting sun, the violet sheen of the water, the deep black of the starry sky overhead… a flawless gradient from dark to light to dark, without a single line in between that could definitively mark where one shade began and the other ended. The sun looked as if it was bobbing in the water, trailing a modest pink aura down into the sea.

A thin breeze sprinted across the ship, smelling faintly of sea salt and old wood. Sheba let it playfully wind its fingers through her hair. Sheba looked to her right just in time to see the wind slap Felix in the face with his ponytail.

She laughed. "You know, you should really cut that thing off."

"I like it," he muttered, roughly brushing his hair back into place.

"Yeah, but-" The wind interrupted Sheba to throw Felix's ponytail back in his face. She giggled in spite of herself.

"What? What's wrong with it?" he asked, pulling strands of hair out of his eyes.

"Nothing. You look perfectly handsome. I just thought you might like something a little more practical, like Isaac's haircut," she answered, turning her back on the sun to lean against the side of the ship. Felix's normally stoic expression fell into one of bemusement, the one he usually wore when he was unnerved but had too much pride to say so. Sheba wondered if mentioning Isaac had been a bad move. She knew the two had a rivalry of sorts, but how conscious Felix was of the friction between them she couldn't say.

"Did you just call me… handsome?"

Oh. Oh _that's _what he- oops. Sheba scrambled for a distraction. She didn't want to start their conversation with that. "Dashing, pleasant, whatever you guys call it. Actually, in Lalivero we'd call a man with your kind of style _romanco."_

"Romanco?"

"No, no, no. Romaaanco. You have to draw out the 'a'. Maaaanco."

His face softened into a rare smile. "And what's that mean?"

"Uh…aristocratic," she answered. Technically 'suave' would have been a better word, but Sheba decided the rougher translation would probably cause less confusion.

He stared at her for a moment and then pinched a bit of his worn tunic. "Aristocratic," he echoed.

"Er…okay, maybe I need a better translation, because station or wealth don't have much to do with it. It's more like…noble. Like Gregarius!"

"Who?"

"Gregarius was an old folk hero in Lalivero. The story goes that he found a magic sword one day while he was helping his father on the farm. The sword was so impressed by his good manners that it agreed to help him save the town against the evil dragon that had kidnapped the princess. He slew the beast, saved the princess, and they lived happily ever as king and queen….You don't have any stories like that?"

Felix shook his head. "So he got to marry the princess even though he was only a peasant?"

"Well that didn't matter! He saved her! You save a princess's life, of course you're going to marry her. That's how it works! Money and birth don't matter, at least not in Lalivero." Felix raised a skeptical eyebrow. Sheba corrected herself. "Well, okay, that's not entirely true. Some people…I mean….there it's based more on…" She stopped. Status wasn't based on anything, really. Your position in the town was based on whom you were acquainted with. Then again, who you were acquainted with depended on your status. To be more specific, your position depended on how many acquaintances away you were from knowing the goddess, i.e. her. But to say that out loud…even though it was true, she didn't want to sound so self-absorbed in front of Felix.

Felix leaned in, concerned. "You miss it, don't you?"

Sheba snapped out of her reverie. "What? Lalivero?" He nodded. "Well…yes and no. I mean, when we're fighting in the woods and we've run out of food and Garet forgets to pack the tents, yeah, I kind of miss the goosedown pillows and the chef-prepared meals." She looked down at her feet. "And I'll always miss Faran and Larenna…but when I'm out here, traveling under the stars, learning about the world and psynergy and maybe even my home…" She looked at Felix. "No. No, I don't regret anything."

Their eyes met, and Sheba felt like his gaze almost had a pressure to it. She tilted her head back to examine the stars. They twinkled encouragingly. "And besides. If Babi hadn't kidnapped me, I never would have met you."

"Tsh. I don't think I'm so worth knowing that your getting held hostage twice becomes a good deal."

"Sure you are. You're brave and smart and strong-willed. And romaaanco," she purred, grinning. Her eyes found his again, only this time she willed herself to hold his stare. "And…you saved me."

Did the color in his eyes darken? Or was it just the fading sunlight? For some reason Felix broke eye contact first, staring deeply into the ocean. He wasn't smiling anymore. He looked almost…nervous. "Sheba, why did you call me up here?"

Sheba shuffled her feet. "Well…I have a question."

She had a question, but she already knew his answer. Not because she had read his mind, though. He got angry whenever she tried to get answers from him like that. But there were other ways of knowing. There were signs. Like how he had always made sure Saturos and Menardi treated her well, or how he'd listen to her ramble on and on and never get up to get a drink of water right in the middle of the good part. Or how, besides his sister, she was the one he smiled for the most. Or even how…well, he dove off a crumbling tower to save her, for crying out loud. She didn't need to read minds to tell that he cared.

The problem was, she couldn't stop smiling. She tried to set her face into a decently serious expression, but her mouth kept popping back into this goofy little grin that didn't suit her at all. So she turned her face away, as if she were too nervous to look him in the eye. It would be better to look coy than childish.

"Felix, we've been traveling together for a while, right?"

"Yeeessss," he said. She peeked at him without turning her head. Felix was staring at her blankly, unsure why she'd ask a question with such an obvious answer. To tell the truth, Sheba would have rather skipped all the rhetorical questions and dove straight into the important one, but this was how it was done. Or how she heard it was done. Besides, it was nice hearing his voice, so that she didn't feel as if she were making some sort of speech.

"Well…um…we're close, right? I mean, not physically close. Like, emotionally close. Urm…" If Sheba had been reciting a speech, it would have been a very poor one. She knew she had lines planned, pretty phrases to make her confession sound eloquent and romantic, with lots of metaphors and imagery about…about…

Something about how those hazel eyes were staring at her made Sheba forgot how to talk. Twelve years of copious experience flew out of her head, leaving her with only the ability to babble and go on tangents. "What I wanna know is, if…we…we have an understanding…that…we understand each other.

Felix sighed, and his shoulders slumped. "Sheba, you're not making any sense."

A cold tingling began to grow in Sheba's stomach. She was losing him. Perhaps she should just get straight to the point. It might not be the most romantic of beginnings, but it was what happened after the confession that mattered, right?

Sheba stared as deeply into Felix's eyes as she could and put on her most elegant, serious expression. "I'm asking if you want to become lovers."

Sheba had read that when you confessed to a crush, he would likely be very shocked, and so she wasn't too disappointed when Felix didn't immediately shout his love for her to the heavens. Felix was a quiet boy who had difficulties expressing his emotions, so that fantasy had probably been a tad unrealistic. But she hadn't expected Felix to be so surprised that he would stop breathing. She'd anticipated him to blush or stammer a little, but instead he'd, irony of ironies, frozen like a stone.

The sun was almost past the horizon now, so Felix's eyes no longer caught the sunlight, and it was hard to read his expression. He was staring hard at her now, but not with a look of awe or ecstasy. He looked more as if he hadn't seen Sheba in years and was trying to remember her name and how she fit into his life. He was so quiet that for a moment Sheba wondered if he hadn't perhaps gone into shock. Felix was male, after all, and they tended to overreact whenever girls mentioned the l-word.

"What?" Felix whispered.

Oh thank goodness. He'd recovered. Sheba had been considering calling Mia for medical attention. She'd hoped her confession would be dramatic, but she hadn't expected to give poor Felix a heart attack. Maybe she should lead Felix through the steps, to make it easier for him. "I love you. You love me too, right?"

With that, Felix seemed to melt. His shoulders slumped, his eyebrows slanted outward, even his eyes seemed to droop. "Sheba…"

She'd expected a heartfelt yes, but uttering her name in a breath of longing seemed an appropriate enough response. "I figure the next logical step is courtship." Sheba turned and gazed dramatically out at the horizon, even though the sun was mostly gone. Hopefully the remaining sunlight would make her look as if she were blushing. She didn't want to appear too forward, after all. "I know it's a bit unusual for the girl to initiate the relationship, but you weren't making any moves, and our journey together's almost over. Time was running short, so I had to take things into my own hands."

"Sheba, I'm so sorry."

She turned back and faced Felix. "Sorry? For what?"

Felix's eyes stared into Sheba's own. "I…don't think this is a good idea."

Sheba blinked. She hadn't expected that. "What? O-of course it is! If we don't get togther now, then when? I mean, sure, we could wait until we finish saving the world, but I honestly don't think our relationship would interfere with lighting the last lighthouse."

"No, Sheba. I mean I don't think this is right for…us." Felix's gaze seemed to grow deeper, darker. As if he were trying to tell her something. Sheba considered mindreading him, but then she realized what he was referring to.

"Oh, you mean the others? They wouldn't mind. They know we can enjoy each other and still handle our responsibilities." Sheba stepped forward and smiled encouragingly. "And Jenna knows how I feel about you, so you don't have to worry about her reaction either. Actually, she's the one who encouraged me to do this."

"She what?" Felix said, his eyes wide. He shook his head in frustration. "N-no, wait. Sheba, you're a very nice girl, but I can't-" He paused, worrying that he might have offended her.

_Girl?_ Sheba stepped forward again, closing the distance between them. "That's what was holding you back? Our age difference? Felix, you don't have to worry about that. We're only four years apart." She took a third step, so that they were now just a hands' width apart. She fluttered her eyelashes. "And I'm very mature for my age."

Felix gasped sharply and then sprang away, as if Sheba had pricked him with a needle. "Sheba, no!" He backpedaled clumsily until he was a few feet away. "It's not any of those things, all right? It's…I can't…" He stared at the air in front of him, as if he were searching for the right words. Suddenly his head swiveled back up in Sheba's direction, and his eyes bored mercilessly into hers. "I don't feel the same way. I'm sorry."

The wind slapped the backs of Sheba's knees before it blew through her, making her feel hollow and feathery on the inside. "Oh."

Felix didn't… Of course. That had always been a possibility. Why hadn't she considered that? Sheba found that her head had become very heavy, and that it was getting increasingly difficult to hold Felix's gaze. She let her eyes fall to the floor. "Are-are you sure?" she asked. The words sounded thick and jagged, as if they were the pieces of whatever Felix had broken, tumbling out of her mouth. "B-because I've read sometimes that people don't realize they're in love un-until they hear the other person say it first, and then it takes a while for the feelings to sink in, so…so…"

Damn it, she was crying. Sheba opened her eyes as wide as she could, hoping the tears would drip back into her sockets. She'd just made an absolute idiot of herself. She didn't want to look like a child too.

The tears weren't stopping. They were oozing down her cheeks, pooling on her chin, and then dropping onto her shirt. And now her nose was dripping. Damn it, damn it, damn it. Is it any wonder Felix only thought of her as a little girl?

She felt like she was shrinking in front of Felix's eyes. As if her feet were melting onto the floor, and she had no choice but to stand in front of Felix and get smaller and wetter and louder. She needed to escape. She needed to leave before he started hating her.

"It-it's really...cold. I should go," Sheba muttered. She swiveled her body around, and her feet followed. She stumbled towards her room, trying not to trip over the floorboards. Now that the sun had set, it was hard to pick out which ones were caved in, but she managed to make it to the stairs without falling.

When Sheba opened the door to her room, Jenna and Mia were already inside, sitting on Mia's plush blue bedding.

"Hey, it's the girl of the hour!" Jenna shouted. She turned around to face the door and grinned. "So, when's the wedding? Are we-" Jenna saw Sheba's face. "Sheba? Sheba, what's wrong?"

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Well? What did you think? Reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated.


	2. Outside Suspicions

Ah, you kept reading. As your reward, you can now have some comic relief. Don't worry, even though this is a drama, I'll try to keep angst to a minimum. But then again, it IS a romance, so it's not going to be completely angst free.

Chapter 2, ho!

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Outside Suspicions

"This is all your fault."

"My-How is this my fault?"

Isaac stood over a pail outside the kitchen door wringing aqua jelly brains out of his tunic. At least, he hoped they were the brains and not something even more disgusting. Lumps of dark blue something plopped into the pail, darkening the water so that Isaac couldn't see his reflection unless he leaned forward into the light from the kitchen. Meanwhile, Garet and Picard were mopping up the kitchen, debating who was to blame for vaguely fish-smelling chaos that lay within.

Picard sighed in exasperation. "I TOLD you to put the aqua jellies in the salt water. Otherwise the membrane starts to dry out and crack."

"Yeah. You told me their skin would dry out. You didn't tell me they would _explode," _said Garet, grinding his mop into a lump of intestine that clung stubbornly to the wall. The head of Garet's mop slipped and bumped softly against Picard's hip, staining his tunic a dark blue.

Picard grimaced, and then used his mop to knock Garet's down to floor-level._"_You still should have just done what I told you," replied the water adept. He then used his psynergy to draw the stain out of the cloth. The goo hung in the air under his hand for a moment, and then flew into Garet's pail.

"Hey, do you know how many trips I'd have to take to lug up enough water for nine aqua jellies? If the job was so important, why didn't you do it? You're the water adept."

"Because I was put in charge of dinner, which means I have to stay in the kitchen at all times. It also means that the people on kitchen duty need to follow my orders."

"Look, I only set them on the counter for twenty minutes. They shouldn't have exploded after only twenty minutes out of water," Garet countered, sullenly dunking his mop into his pail, possibly making it dirtier in the process.

"Don't blame the food, Garet. That's what happens when Aqua Jellies are left out of water for inordinate periods of time. Their skin weakens and cracks, their bodily fluids evaporate, and then their bodies explode under the pressure."

"How was I supposed to know THAT? I've never cooked one of these things before."

Picard stopped scrubbing and looked his fellow adept in the eye. "Garet, when we do pest control and find Aqua Jellies raiding our fresh water supply, how do you exterminate them?"

"Oh, simple. I just cast some fire psynergy and blow them up into little bi-" Garet stopped talking and scowled. He opened his mouth to argue, and then snapped it shut without saying anything. He waited a moment to gather his thoughts, and then opened his mouth again, only to close it a second time. Garet did this for half a minute or so, looking rather like an Aqua Jelly that has run out of breathable water.

Isaac couldn't help himself. He laughed. Garet snapped out of his spell and looked at his best friend hunched outside the door. His eyes had the same confused look that he'd worn as a kid when his grandma would send him to bed without dinner. Isaac stifled his chuckles and gave his best friend what he hoped was a sufficiently apologetic grin.

Garet's face relaxed into a tired smile. "Haha. Okay, laugh it up, Isaac. But you're on kitchen duty too. Shouldn't you be helping Ivan with what's left of the food?"

Isaac held up his navy blue hands, proof that he had suffered the heaviest casualties from the explosion. "I think I better get the jelly off of these before I go near any of the food, unless you want dessert to be blue."

Picard smiled as well. "Well, it is blueberry pie. Oh, Ivan, how's dinner coming, anyway?" Picard called to the wind adept at the back of the room. Though Ivan technically wasn't on kitchen duty that night, the boys had needed someone to prepare the rest of the food. Someone who wasn't covered in fish guts. Someone who wouldn't yell at them for messing up the kitchen. Someone who actually knew how to cook.

Ivan looked up from a vaguely sweet smelling salad bowl. "Well, luckily we had enough vegetables to make another salad. The casserole and the pie were in the oven, so they were spared from the blast. So…I think we'll be able to eat tonight." The boys cheered.

Isaac suddenly realized that someone was standing behind him. He stood up and turned around, seeing Mia and Jenna at the end of the hall. They did not look happy.

"Mia. Jenna. How…are…you?" Isaac said slowly. He pushed his barrel of filth into the kitchen with his foot, hoping they didn't see it, or that if they saw it, that they didn't notice that it was filled with monster brains.

"The girls!" Garet cursed. "Just the-" Picard rammed him in the ribs with his mop. "I mean, just why are they here? Are they wanting to take a sneak peak at the fantastic, delicious, perfectly edible dinner they have in store for them?" Garet improvised.

"No, I'm sure they'd much rather let us work, so we can feed them all the sooner. They know that we are perfectly capable cooks. Not that we're hiding anything. After all, if the girls were to come in here, which they certainly don't have to, but if they were, I'm sure they'd agree that we have everything under control," Picard said, a little too loudly to be believable.

"Everything under control," echoed Garet.

The girls were silent. Isaac slowly shifted his weight, wondering how long it would be before the screaming would start. He couldn't really block them from going into the kitchen, not without them realizing that something was wrong. Then again, there was no way they were going to walk away either, not after hearing that wonderful little speech. Isaac knew he wasn't the best of talkers, but not even Kraden and his silver-smooth oratory could turn those two into believable actors.

Fortunately for the cooks, they had Ivan as a distraction. The wind adept popped out of the door and smiled shyly. "If you're hungry, I can bring up the salad. The croutons aren't quite done yet, but only Sheba and Picard really like those anyway, so-"

Mia interrupted him with one of her gentle smiles. "It's all right, Ivan. Take your time. We were just walking by."

"Yeah, we've got enough to deal with right now, so we'll leave the, uh, magic of the kitchen to you," said Jenna.

Ivan's face fell. "Is something wrong?"

Jenna waved her hands as if to shoo the question away. "No, it's nothing. Forget I said anything."

"Wait, something's wrong?" asked Picard, walking out into the hall with a mop in his hand.

"No, it's nothing you guys need to worry about. Go back to cleaning, or cooking, or whatever you guys were doing," said Jenna. She turned her face towards the wall, twisting her ponytail in her hands. She was one of those people who could never tell a lie straight to your face; she always had to look at something else while she did it.

"Jenna, tell us what's wrong," said Isaac.

Garet joined the others in the hall. "Something's wrong?"

"No, Garet! Nothing's wrong!" she yelled. Silence. Jenna started twisting her hair in the other direction, looking anywhere except back at Isaac. Mia put a hand on her friend's shoulder. She and Jenna looked at each other, and they must have communicated via some sort of ancient female psynergy, because when they faced the boys they had the same expression on their faces.

"Sheba confessed to Felix," they said simultaneously.

Isaac felt a twinge of energy in the brief silence that followed. He wasn't quite sure if it was emotion or psynergy, but Picard interrupted Isaac's thoughts before he could check. "Confession? Wait, did Sheba read Felix's mind again?" Everyone stared at the water adept, whose facial expression showed that he had not understood the mainland idiom.

"Not a criminal confession. Confession as in a profession of love," Isaac explained.

"As in…Oh, congratulations!" said Picard, his face lighting up.

"A con-Wait, since when does Sheba like Felix?" asked Garet.

"For quite a while actually. You haven't been around them as long as Jenna or I, so you haven't had the chance to watch their relationship develop. But if you had, you'd have known that they've been harboring romantic feelings for each other for quite a while. It was only a matter of time before they entered the courtship phase," answered Picard matter of factly.

"Oh, uh…well, yeah, then congratulations." Garet sniggered. "Man, it's hard to imagine Felix getting lovey dovey over a girl." The girls stared.

Isaac rolled his eyes, more for the girls' sake than his own. "Don't worry, we won't tease him too much. In all seriousness, though, tell him congratulations for us."

There was a pause where the next congratulations should have been. Everyone turned their gaze to Ivan, whose skin seemed a little grayer than it was five minutes ago. The boy was staring intently at his shoes, as if by piercing them with his gaze he could nail them securely to the floor. "I, um…" He hunched his shoulders and seemed to shrink a size. He glanced quickly up at Mia and then back down at his shoes. "ah, I…eh…" And suddenly he was past Mia, scrambling up the stairs to the main deck. "Excuse me!"

"Wait, Ivan, I don't think Sheba feels like talking right now!" Mia called after the boy, but he was already gone.

"What was his problem?" asked Garet.

Jenna sighed. "At least somebody gets it."

"Gets what?" asked Isaac.

Jenna stared at the boys, as if she expected them to read the answer in her eyes. Unfortunately, the only male who had been able to understand female body language had just fled the room. As such, the boys were forced to simply stare back. Jenna widened her eyes a little and tilted her head forward, as if that would make her expression any easier to read. They continued to stare. Luckily Mia realized that this sensitivity training session was going nowhere and mercifully supplied the boys with the answer. "Felix said no."

The boys blinked in unison. "Wait, he rejected her?" Garet cried. He turned to Picard. "But you said-"

"I remember what I said. I might not be up to date with mainland idioms, but I'd like to think I can at least read facial expressions."

Garet turned to the girls. "Then why'd he say no?"

Jenna and Mia glanced at each other. "You're asking us?" Jenna replied.

"Maybe he loved her like a sister. Or a friend," suggested Isaac.

Jenna folded her arms across her chest and scowled. "Come on, Isaac. You don't jump off a crumbling lighthouse to save someone who's _just _a friend."

Now it was the boys' turn to check each other's facial expressions. After a quick check to make sure that they were in agreement, they turned back to Jenna. "Yes you do!" they shouted in unison.

"If you had been in Felix's place, wouldn't you have done whatever you could to save Sheba?" added Picard.

"Well of course! She's one of my best friends!" said Jenna. She paused, and Isaaccould see that last sentence echo in her mind. "Okay, maybe that was a bad example. But whatever he feels for her, it's definitely stronger than friendship, I can tell."

"How?" Isaac asked.

"Because! Because…I don't know. He likes to buy her little trinkets and candies when we're in town. And he's really protective of her. And…and she seems to relax him."

Picard and Isaac blanched. Sheba was many things, but relaxing was not one of them. And Felix…Felix had changed a lot since he went missing. He was colder, more distant. And definitely stronger. Not that he'd ever been the kind of child to giggle and tumble around the house, but now he was very…tense. Always alert, always serious. Even when he was asleep, his muscles were taut and ready, and he looked more like he was waiting for an ambush than doing anything so vulnerable as dreaming. So when Picard and Isaac stared at Jenna as if she were garbling nonsense, it wasn't to be rude or dismissive. It was because what she was saying quite literally made no sense.

"Relaxed? Felix? Are you sure?" asked Isaac.

"Yes, I'm sure," Jenna sulked. Once of her hands snaked up to her hair and began twisting it again. "I am his sister, after all," she reminded them.

Isaac heard someone cough to his left. He looked over and saw Garet with his feet planted shoulder width apart and his arms crossed over his chest. Maybe it was just Isaac, but his friend seemed a little taller than usual. "So what you're saying is, he led her on."

Mia, sensing conflict, stepped back into the conversation. "Garet, Felix would never hurt Sheba like that. Whatever it is, I'm sure he has his reasons for letting her down."

Garet scoffed. "Yeah, well maybe he should have those reasons wrung out of him and some sense kicked in instead. I mean, if they both love each other, what possible reason could he have to say no?"

Jenna scowled. "Garet, you're talking as if my brother is playing with Sheba's feelings on purpose. You grew up with him. You know he's not that kind of guy."

Mia nodded. "When Jenna and I visited Felix's room, he wouldn't unlock the door. Sheba at least talked to us, but he's sitting in his bedroom in the dark by himself. It's obvious that he's suffering."

"Yeah, well what about Sheba? Isn't she suffering?" Garet growled.

Mia looked back at the stairs Ivan had run up. "Ivan will help her. They've gotten quite close since our groups joined forces. I'm sure he'll be able to make things better. You'll see. Everything will turn out fine."

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Remember to review, please!


	3. Heading Backwards

All right! I'm posting a chapter a little sooner than I expected, because my responsibilities were pushed back to a later date (i.e. now), so I had some time in between. It's a bit longer, so hopefully it will help tide you over until July.

Author's Note: I don't own Golden Sun, its characters, etc.

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Chapter 3: Heading Backwards

_Of course. Of course Sheba chose Felix._ Ivan rolled over on his bed and stared at the flickering candle on his nightstand. Why was he so surprised? Felix was stronger, braver, taller. He'd known her longer. He'd even jumped off a crumbling lighthouse to save her life, while Ivan had just stared across the chasm, wondering if it was possible for two adepts to survive a six mile fall.

Then, four months after Felix and Sheba had "died", Ivan had lain gasping on the cold stone walkway of the Jupiter Lighthouse, wondering how long he would survive. The acidic smell of blood and singed armor tainted every unsteady breath. His vision melted into a puddle of blurred, colorless shapes, but though he couldn't see much, he could hear Isaac's cries as Karst joined her partner in showering Isaac with fireballs. His friend was dying, and once the Proxians were done with Isaac, they'd turn to the defenseless Garet and Mia, and Ivan would have to listen to them scream too. And as his life seeped into the freezing stone beneath him, Ivan knew that their deaths would be his fault for being too weak to defend himself, for not dying quietly.

And then…Felix came. Like bright shining angels from beyond the grave, Felix, Sheba, and their friends had rushed in to fight off the Proxians, saving everyone from Ivan's mistake. Ivan blacked out shortly after. He woke up to Sheba's touch as she rubbed a healing salve into his burns. Her fingers had been so soft, he didn't even feel the sting of the potion as it revived the skin on his arms. He didn't even thank her for healing him, or ask if the others were all right. He'd just stared up at the night sky and thanked the stars that someone had saved him. Again.

Why would Sheba choose the child who always needed rescuing when she could have the hero, the man who had saved both their lives? Because Ivan was a fellow wind adept? Because he had a stupid, unrequited crush? Really, what had Ivan been expecting?

Well, not expecting. More like dreaming, or wishing. Even though Sheba was vastly more charismatic and outgoing than he was, they seemed to get along well. He'd even dare to think Sheba enjoyed having him around.

That was probably due to his element more than his actual personality, though. Both he and Sheba had grown up believing that they were the only people in all of Weyard with their abilities. It was only natural that when their groups joined forces, they'd want to learn as much about each other as possible.

Unfortunately, for Ivan the relationship was more than one of curiosity. It was… well, it was love, wasn't it? When he was with Sheba, he felt safe and warm. Even if she was just in the same room, when Sheba was near Ivan had a hard time remembering what it was like to be alone. She was like…light. He didn't technically need her to survive, but when she was gone, he couldn't stop thinking about her. He-

Suddenly Ivan heard footsteps in the hall outside, heading towards his room. Judging from their voices, Ivan knew it had to be his roommates, Isaac and Garet. Ivan felt the muscles in his shoulders go tight with dread. True, they were his first friends, his best friends, but Ivan really didn't want to talk with them right now.

Ivan knew that no matter what kind of conversation they were having, if he had to speak he'd start stuttering and get red in the face, and they'd want to know what was the matter. Then Ivan would break down and start bawling, and his friends would REALLY know something was wrong. Eventually they'd put two and two together and realize that he was crying over Sheba. Then they'd try to comfort him, and he'd feel even worse, and they'd bring in Mia or Jenna or, gods forbid, Sheba to calm him down. And Ivan just couldn't take that sort of humiliation.

Maybe he could tell them that he was sick. That would explain the tremors in his hand, and give him a good excuse if he had to go throw up later. Ivan grabbed a small amulet on his nightstand and looked at his reflection on the silver back. Oh gods above. His face was completely pink. And he was crying. Crying like a little girl.

Isaac and Garet were just outside the door now. The doorknob was turning. Ivan dove back into his bed and yanked his bedsheets over his face. As the door opened, he rolled around to face the wall and rubbed his eyes as hard as he could without shaking the bed.

"Still," Garet's thick voice rumbled from the doorway, "after all the hard work we did, you'd have thought SOMEBODY would come to dinner.

"Even if the others had come, do you really think anyone would have eaten anything?" asked the softer, quieter voice of Isaac. "Our conversation with the girls lasted so long that we burned the casserole and the pie. You and Picard exploded the aqua jellies. The only thing left was Ivan's salad, and he- Oh."

Ivan heard the springs from Garet's bed give out a metallic whine as his friend sat down. "What is it?"

"Shh, Ivan's asleep," Isaac whispered.

"Oh" said Garet, his voice lowered to a rumble. "But I thought he ran off to go comfort Sheba."

"He must have come straight back here and fallen asleep."

Garet chuckled to himself. "What a guy. He gets so worried about Sheba that he doesn't even get himself a bite to eat. I keep telling him that if he doesn't look out for himself more, he's gonna wake up one morning with a killer cold."

"You know Ivan. He's one of those rare people who always thinks about others before himself."

"Yeah, unlike _some_ people we know."

"Come on, Garet, you've been going on about Felix all night. Can't we talk about something else?"

As Garet and Isaac chatted, Ivan tried his hardest not to move, taking slow, shallow breaths so that his blanket wouldn't shift and attract attention. He hadn't thought it was possible, but he now felt worse than ever. Listening to Isaac's and Garet's compliments had knotted his stomach so tightly that it felt as if it were going to collapse in on itself. Ivan, the kind of person who thinks of others first. How ironic.

_Sheba_ was the one who had gotten rejected. _Sheba_ was the one whose heart was breaking. She needed Ivan's help now more than ever, but when he found out about her rejection, what did he do? He ran to his room and hid under the covers, like a child afraid of the dark. He'd been so busy feeling sorry for himself the past few hours that it hadn't even occurred to him to go comfort Sheba. And now, when Ivan finally realized that he should be at her side, he couldn't move. Even if Ivan made it to Sheba's room, could he really keep it together well enough to give her the support she deserved? No. No, he could not.

Because in spite of what his friends seemed to think, Ivan knew that at his heart he was a deeply selfish person. Someone who relied on his friends to save him from his mistakes, and then stole the credit for their accomplishments. Who invaded strangers' most private thoughts but couldn't look them in the eye. Who, without his friends to protect him, would never have set foot in Lunpa, and would have let the man who raised him from infancy rot in a jail cell for eternity.

A person who was, at his core, a coward.

Somehow, in spite of his stomach tying itself into knots, Ivan had managed to fall asleep. The next thing he knew, the room was filled with the rustles and snaps of his roommates dressing. Ivan groggily poked his head out of the sheets.

Isaac paused, his arm halfway through his jacket. He cringed. "Sorry, Ivan. We tried not to disturb you."

"He was going to have to wake up anyway," said Garet, crouching in front of the small mirror on his dresser. "Don't want to miss two meals in a row."

Ivan told them it was all right and changed as fast as he could. The three made their way to the deck above, where Mia, Picard and Sheba were already chatting by the table. Or rather, Mia and Picard talked while Sheba sat on the bench, looking…wilted.

Sheba looked up and flashed a small smile to Ivan. "Hey. Sorry I didn't open my door last night. Mia told me that you stopped by to check on me, but I was kind of…um…yeah." She lowered her head and rubbed her arm self-consciously.

Ivan felt his stomach tighten. He pushed the guilt out of his mind and gave Sheba as comforting a smile as he could. "It's all right. I'm sorry about…" Ivan closed his mouth. He couldn't bring himself to say Felix's name out loud.

Luckily, he didn't need to. Sheba's smile grew thin and forced. She knew who Ivan was talking about. "It's all right. I'm not going to, you know, die or anything," she muttered.

Perhaps Sheba didn't look like she was on death's door, but she certainly didn't look all right. Her eyes were puffy and red, and her voice was very small. Her skin, her clothes, even her hair looked pale and dry, as if someone had sucked the color out of her. Ivan hated seeing her like this. He knew he should say something to comfort her, but his mind was blank, so he stood there smiling uselessly like a dropped puppet.

"Hey," Garet cried. "Dang it, the table's still covered with last night's dishes! I don't want to clean this up! Who's the slacker who had dish duty last night?"

Ivan felt a chill go up his spine. Oh no. He'd neglected his chores too? What else had he forgotten last night? "I'm-sorry-I'm-so-sorry-I-forgot-I'll-clean-it-up-right-away!" he cried, piling as many plates and bowls as could fit in his arms.

Mia smiled gently. "It's all right, Ivan, you don't have to rush. Breakfast isn't even ready yet." She shot a scolding look at Garet, who stared sullenly at his boots.

"What's this? You ate without me again?" said a voice from behind the adepts. They turned around to see Kraden at the top of the stairs. He had two rolls of parchment under each arm and a bemused, almost hurt look on his wrinkled face.

The teens rushed to deny the scholar's question with a chorus of "No, of course not!"s. Mia explained that Ivan was simply cleaning up last night's dinner. The adept in question rushed past Kraden with a table-full of dishes and a garbled "Excuse me!" Kraden's robes fluttered a little as Ivan sped by.

"My goodness," said Kraden, gently placing his manuscripts onto his corner of the table. "Nothing gets that boy riled up quite like a pile of dirty dishes, does it?"

"Yeah. A lifetime of being a hand servant to one of the most powerful men on the continent will do that to you," answered Garet.

Kraden pushed his glasses up his nose. "I thought he was Master Hammet's adopted son."

Isaac creased his brow in concern. "He's both. Lady Llayana explained it to us in Kalay, remember?"

Kraden blinked and then waved his hand as if to shoo his mistake aside. "Ah, yes, that odd arrangement. Forgive me. Sometimes the little details slip in my old age."

Isaac and Garet glanced at each other. It could have been Isaac's imagination, but ever since the two parties joined up, Kraden seemed a bit…older than he remembered. He forgot small things, like where he'd left his book or the names of the towns in his stories. And he was spending more and more time in his study below deck, watching over the ship or sleeping as the rest of the group explored the ruins of ancient temples and forgotten mine shafts.

Then again, the adepts' journey was rough even for them; Isaac could only imagine how difficult traveling across the world was for a psynergy-less man of 70. Kraden wasn't getting _old _or anything; he was just tired. And even if he was getting slower, he was still quicker and more knowledgeable than most men a quarter of his age.

Still, Kraden seemed to think he was going senile. Any time he forgot the littlest thing, he'd apologize and berate himself for getting old. His age came up more and more in conversations, which were uncomfortable to say the least. Any time Kraden mentioned his age, Garet, Isaac, or Jenna changed the subject as quickly as possible before their friend could start reminiscing about how much smarter and stronger he was in his youth.

"So what are the parchments for, Kraden?" asked Garet.

"Ah, I was hoping you'd ask about them. You see, the reason I didn't come to dinner last night was because I was double-checking these scrolls from the last temple we visited. But the facts match on all four manuscripts. I think I can safely say…" said Kraden as he smiled softly to himself, "that I've discovered how to get inside the Mars lighthouse." He raised his hand before the others could speak. "BUT we should wait until everyone's arrived, so I don't have to explain it twice."

Just then, Jenna and Ivan came up the stairs with trays of steaming bowls. Garet stiffened. "Jenna," he croaked. "You cooked breakfast?"

Jenna glared at her fellow fire adept. "It's porridge," she growled as she set a bowl in front of Garet.

"Oh." Garet relaxed. Even Jenna couldn't screw porridge up.

Kraden looked around the table as everyone sat down. "Where's Felix?" Everyone cringed simultaneously.

"I…don't think he's coming to breakfast today," answered Picard. "Don't worry, I'll explain everything to him later. Now, what was it you had to tell us about the Mars Lighthouse?"

"Ah, yes, of course." Kraden spread out the parchments so that the margins overlapped each other. "Now, as you recall, the ancients had decided to remove the Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury Stars from their lighthouses, and to lock them away in the Sol Sanctum. But of course, there were many people who opposed the sealing of alchemy. To prevent these people from reigniting the lighthouses, the ancients devised certain…requirements in order to summit them."

"Like how you must have an adept of the lighthouse's element in order to enter," offered Picard.

"Or all the traps inside to keep people from reaching the top," added Jenna.

"Precisely," said Kraden, snapping his fingers. "These manuscripts describe one of the requirements to enter the Mars Lighthouse. It is an ancient artifact called Vulcan's Greaves."

Garet groaned. "Great. So now we have to search Weyard for ANOTHER ancient artifact of immeasurable power?"

Kraden gave an impish grin. "Actually, no. Believe it or not, the artifact is located in none other than the very village our journey began."

The group fell silent. "Are you saying…it's in Vale?" asked a wide-eyed Jenna. Kraden nodded.

"Wait, wait, wait." The group turned towards the small blond at the end of the table, whose bloodshot eyes were now dry and calculating. "You all told me that Vale was mostly earth adepts. Why would it have an artifact for the Mars lighthouse?"

"That's a very good question, Sheba," replied Kraden. "You see, out of all the opponents of alchemy's sealing, the Proxians were by far the most volatile. They attacked anyone who tried to enter the Mars Lighthouse and steal its Elemental Star. The ancients had to siege Prox for months, losing countless soldiers to the fierce cold and the Proxians' deadly attacks, before they finally breached the lighthouse."

"Geez, these guys have been a menace since the very beginning, haven't they?" muttered Garet.

"Actually, Garet, it's not quite that simple." Kraden leaned forward and adjusted his glasses. "The Proxians knew that once alchemy was sealed, their homeland would be the first to suffer the consequences. Without the Mars star's light, their country would grow dangerously cold, even for them, and much of their land would fall over Gaia falls. In their eyes, the ancients were dooming their country and the entire world to a long, painful death, and the Proxians were determined to thwart that fate. And as you all know, when the Proxians wage war, they fight until they win or die. Most of them did the latter."

"Yeah, yeah. Poor Proxians, doomed to always be stubborn at the wrong time," muttered Sheba, who had difficulties feeling sympathy for her former kidnappers. "But Kraden, that still doesn't answer my question."

"Ah, yes, of course. My apologies, I got sidetracked," replied Kraden. "You see, even after the ancients defeated the Proxians and extracted the Mars Star, the remaining Proxians were determined to revive alchemy. They swore that they would scour the world for the Mars Star, punish the thieves who held it, and then steal it back. Since Prox has many proficient Mars adepts, it would be dangerously easy for them to make their way to the top of the lighthouse once they had the Mars Star. And so, the ancients gave the Mars Lighthouse an extra defense: a gate, of sorts, which required a very special key."

"Vulcan's Greaves," said Picard.

Kraden nodded. "Exactly. According to these manuscripts, Vulcan's Greaves were originally held here." Kraden touched his finger to one of the parchments, which, now that the adepts looked more closely, was in fact a large, wrinkled map. The scholar's yellowed nail lay on top of a small island off the coast of Gondowan. "In an island called Lemnos. The people of Lemnos had a village very much like ours, composed of fire and earth adepts. Their duty was to protect Vulcan's Greaves from Proxian thieves, much like the people of Vale have dedicated their lives to guarding the Elemental Stars. However, a tragedy befell the island, which wiped out most of the village.

"Really? What happened?" asked Mia.

Kraden frowned. "Well, the manuscripts are unfortunately quite vague about that. There are a few glyphs here and here which could be interpreted as describing a sort of "curse", but they could also be translated as "disease" or "fatal illness". You have to understand, these are merely excerpts out of a larger text. Without the other pages, it's difficult to tell whether the villagers died because of something related to Vulcan's Greaves or if their misfortune was merely a coincidental plague."

There was a small silence as the group contemplated how poorly the words "coincidence" and "plague" fit together.

"Ahem. Anyway," Kraden continued, "a few of the Lemnos villagers survived, and they managed to transport the artifact to its sister village, Vale. They humbly asked the mayor to take on their responsibility and guard Vulcan's Greaves along with the Elemental Stars. Of course, the mayor could hardly refuse, so he swore to guard the artifact personally."

"Hnh," Jenna smirked. "A legendary artifact under our feet, and we never even knew."

"Yes, well, I suppose knowledge of the Greaves got lost over time, which is why I never found anything about them within Vale's archives. But Valeans aren't the type of people to shift responsibility onto others. If I know the people of Vale, I can be fairly certain that once the Greaves arrived, they never left."

"In that case…" Isaac turned to the group. "Are you all okay with stopping there?"

Sheba was practically vibrating with excitement. "Are you kidding? I can't wait!" She leered evilly at Isaac, Garet, and Jenna. "I want to visit your houses and have your parents tell me all of the embarrassing stories from when you guys were kids."

Jenna returned her friend's mock sneer. "Not a chance." She turned to Isaac. "No really, I'm all for it."

Picard grinned. "Even if this Greaves business hadn't come up, I was going to ask if we could make a visit. I really want to have a look at this Sol Sanctum of yours. I think it could offer a lot of clues about how places like Contigo and Lemuria managed to retain their higher levels of alchemy."

Mia nodded. "I've heard so much about it. It would be nice to see it with my own eyes."

"I think we should," said Ivan. "Even if the Greaves have been relocated, the clues to their whereabouts will most likely be there."

Garet opened his mouth, and then paused. He'd promised his family that he and Isaac wouldn't return until they'd completed their mission to stop the lighthouses from being relit. How would the village react when they realized that the mayor's son had not only failed his mission, but was now trying to bring alchemy back to the world?

Garet sensed the others' eyes on him and pushed the image of his disappointed parents out of his mind. His family would forgive him once Kraden showed them the maps that proved Weyard was shrinking. Even his grandfather couldn't blame him for trying to save the world. Besides, Isaac knew what he was doing. If he wasn't worrying about the villagers, then Garet wouldn't either.

Garet stretched his mouth as wide as it would go and shouted, "Yeah, sounds like a great idea!"

Isaac gave a crisp nod and said, "All right. If everyone's agreed, then…it looks like we're going home."

* * *

So much aaaaangst. Yes, I know, most of you will think Ivan was a little bit too emo in the first half of this chapter, but at this moment in the story, that's his character. If you're wondering why Ivan has such deep self-esteem issues, consider this: Up until he's fifteen years old, he thinks he's the only wind adept in the world. No, scratch that, he doesn't even know what adepts are, so he thinks he's a freak of nature. He travels all over the continent with Master Hammet, and everywhere he goes, people call him strange and avoid him at all costs. Furthermore, he can read these people's minds and hear just how much they fear and despise him, thereby getting rejected on two planes.

The only people who don't treat him like a walking disaster are Master Hammet, Lady Layana, and _maybe_ the guards you talk to when you arrive at Kalay in the game. The thing is, Master Hammet had promised Ivan's mother that he would adopt Ivan and treat him like a son. Instead, by the time Ivan is left in Vault, he's gone from "adopted son" to "personal servant". Ivan doesn't know about this deal, of course. As far as I can tell, he was simply raised as a servant who had a father-son relationship with his master. And maybe not even that, since Ivan calls Hammet "Master" instead of "Father". True, it seemed like Master Hammet treated Ivan fairly well, but the idea that, "Okay, I'll treat you like my son, but you have to follow all of my orders, because to everyone else you're just my servant," had to be a bit of a damper on the relationship. Even with mind reading powers, it had to have been difficult for a young child like Ivan to tell where he stood with his master/father. And since Master Hammet was one of maybe four people in the entire world who tolerated Ivan's presence, pleasing Master Hammet was paramount in Ivan's life. All this results in a neurotic, self-conscious child who will do almost anything to avoid disapproval.

Sorry, I didn't mean to go into a character study. The point is, Ivan has issues. Everyone on this boat has issues. They're teenagers fighting for their lives every day. Over half of them have been imprisoned/kidnapped at some point. A few have even been worshipped as angels/goddesses. These adepts are not going to be normal, psychologically speaking.

On another note, I hope you guys could tell which scene I was referring to in Ivan's flashback. You know, the one on Jupiter Lighthouse where everyone in Isaac's party nearly dies? I'm probably going to visit that a couple more times. I'll try not to make the other flashbacks as confusing as this one was.

And don't worry, this isn't going to be a straight love triangle between Ivan, Sheba, and Felix. There's a teensy bit more going on than that.

Also, I'd like to make a short note: Vulcan's Greaves do not have anything to do with Star Trek. They're named after the Roman god of fire, since I noticed Golden Sun likes using mythology. Vulcan was also crippled, which will be important later on. Also, for those of you who don't know, greaves is a type of arm guard. Plus, it sounds like grieves.

I think that's it. You have to realize, I'm writing this author's note during the wee hours of the morning, so it may not be terribly coherent. But I want to get this post up, so I'll stop writing and just press the save button now.

Oh, before I go, I wanted to thank the people who reviewed so far! It's always inspiring to hear what you guys think. Okay, seriously. Me. Post. Now.


	4. Too Much Thinking

Hey! Kairikiani here! I'm posting early, because I'm just like that. If I were a good little writer I'd wait a day and edit the story instead of posting it immediately after I finish the last section, but I've waited so long to post finish this chapter that I can't help myself. Thanks to Andrew Parrish, Little Kunai, goldensun1126, abstractmind, Daidairo, lovestory121 and narcoleptic ninny for reviewing!

* * *

Felix woke up to a muted pounding in his ears. However, in his half-awake state, he couldn't tell whether the noise was coming from inside or outside of his head. Since the incident with Sheba he'd had a skull-splitting headache, and he went to bed as soon as possible with the hopes that whenever he woke up, both the memories of his sobbing friend and the icy pain in his skull would turn out to be a dream. Unfortunately, if the numb chill behind his forehead was any indication, napping hadn't solved much.

Felix took in a breath full of stale air and inched closer to the wall against his bed. The covers were scratchy and the pillow stank, but the bed was warm and safe. As long as Felix lay under his sheets, he could believe that his conversation with Sheba on the cold, windy deck really did happen in a whole other world. He had the nasty feeling that if he woke up any further, reality and his nightmares would collide, and he'd be overwhelmed with unpleasant feelings like guilt and stress. It was much better to just rest under the sheets and sleep off this headache…

More pounding, faster this time. Oh, someone really was knocking on his door. Probably someone coming to invite him to dinner. Felix nudged the covers off of the bed and rolled into a semi-upright position. If he told them he was feeling ill, would they just let him sleep? Or would they bring Mia to come heal him awake? Felix made his way towards the sliver of light coming in from under the door. He slid the chain out of the notch that kept the door locked, and then pulled the door open to find Picard standing in the hall outside.

Felix blinked a few times to get the sleep out of his eyes. "Picard? I thought you were on dinner duty."

His friend furrowed his brows. "Well, yes. I was on dinner duty…last night."

Last night? As Felix's mind thawed itself awake, he realized that since his and Picard's bedroom had no clocks or windows, he had no idea what time of day it was. "Wait, are you saying it's morning already?"

"It's been that way for a while, yes."

That's odd. Felix was such a light sleeper that he often woke before the sun rose. He definitely would have woken up if Picard had come into the room. "And you're only just now coming back?"

Picard's eyebrows and the tips of his mouth drew up in unison. "Well, I tried to get to my bed last night, but the door was locked, and you weren't responding to anything I said."

A spark of understanding went off in Felix's head, jolting him awake. Felix cringed. "Oh, Picard! I'm so sorry. I must have locked the door out of habit. I'd only intended to sleep for an hour or two. Did I really lock you out for the entire night?"

Picard smiled. "It's all right. Kraden let me sleep in his room."

Felix shook his head. "It's not all right. I- oh, here, come in." He opened the door wider, and his roommate slipped inside. Picard fished some matches out of a satchel and began lighting the lanterns hanging from the walls.

"I really am sorry, Picard. I honestly didn't hear you."

His friend gave a light laugh. "It's all right. You had a rough night, so it's understandable that you would be more tired than usual." As he lit the candles, the room looked increasingly cramped and dirty. Both men tried to keep it as neat and tidy as possible, always folding their clothes and sweeping the dust out from under their dressers. But no matter how often they washed the floors or made their beds, they couldn't do much about the dank, moldy smell or the slick grayish sheen of the walls. In the dark, Felix could pretend that he was in a nice, wholesome inn with dry floors and clean sheets. But once the ship's candles were lit, everything was cast in a greasy yellow that was impossible to ignore.

"You heard about Sheba," said Felix. It was more of a statement then a question.

"I think the whole boat knows about you and Sheba by now."

A sharp chill pierced Felix's skull. He sat himself down on the bed and massaged his temples. So it hadn't been a dream.

"Ah…Felix?" Picard asked softly from the back wall. Felix turned his head to show he was listening. "I don't mean to pry, but…I was under the impression that you liked Sheba."

Felix raised his eyebrows. "You were?"

Picard looked up at the ceiling, as if he were tracing the woodgrains with his eyes. "Well, yes. It's just, the way you looked at her…"

The chill in Felix's head slid down his spine into the gap between his shoulder blades. How had he looked at Sheba? He tried feverishly to remember the last time he had a normal conversation with Sheba, and how his eyes had felt. Felix thought that he'd looked at her like he did everyone else. Had his feelings been that transparent?

Not that he had feelings for Sheba, of course. Not the kind she had for him. But it disturbed Felix to know that others had made the same mistake Sheba had. He'd assumed that Sheba had just been overenthusiastic about her emotions, and had mistaken his simple affection for love. But if both Jenna and Picard had also seen something in Felix's eyes, maybe Sheba hadn't confessed on a whim.

If that was the case…was last night his fault?

If Picard knew what Felix was thinking, he didn't comment on it. Instead, he waved aside the subject and said, "Sorry, I probably just imagined it. Oh well. She'll get over you and find another guy soon enough. And I'm sure she won't be the last girl to confess her love to you," Picard said as he winked. "You'll both get another chance."

Felix looked away. "Right."

"Unless, of course, you don't want another chance?"

"No, no, I just- Look, Picard, I appreciate the fact that you're trying to cheer me up, but I'm just not interested in women right now."

Picard nodded to himself. "Ah, I see. That's-" He froze as if he'd been splashed with cold water. Then he swirled around with an odd, wide-eyed expression on his face. "Wait, what?"

Felix blinked. "Is that so strange?" True, the heroes in the fairy tales wooed every woman they could find, leaving a weeping maiden in every town they left. But Felix had his reasons for not dating every village princess he met, one of them being that he was a little busy saving the world.

Picard waved his hands frantically in front of him. "No, no, I'm perfectly fine with it. You just surprised me, is all. You admit it so…openly," he murmured. Felix stared. "N-not that it's anything to be ashamed of. Believe it or not, you're not the only one who feels this way. There's actually a lot of our kind in Lemuria. It's perfectly natural."

"…our kind?"

Picard winced at his mistake. "Well, I mean..." He caught Felix's stare and sighed. "All right. I suppose since you confided in me, I should return the favor." Picard sat himself gently on the other bunk and gave Felix a strained smile. "The truth is… I'm sort of 'fighting for the other army' as well."

Felix could feel his migraine getting a second wind. What did 'fighting for the other army' mean? "You are?"

Picard flashed a cringing smile. "I'm sorry. I know I should have told you sooner, but you have to understand, not everyone on the mainland is as comfortable with this as you are. It didn't affect our mission in any way, so I figured it would be safer just not to mention it. By the time we joined rooms on the ship, I didn't know how to bring it up without being, well, awkward." Picard slapped a hand on Felix's shoulder. "But I'm glad you confided in me. It's better to be honest about this sort of thing."

They sat there for a moment, staring at each other. Picard's hand felt heavy on Felix's shoulder, and Felix wondered if there was any way he could ask his friend to remove it without offending him.

"Actually, if you want…" Picard glanced at the door. When he'd made sure it was still closed, he leaned in to whisper. "I could help you explain it to the others. I know that it's taboo on the mainland, but our friends are open-minded people. I honestly think if we explained our situation that they'd understand."

Felix shook his head in exasperation. "Picard, what are you talking about?"

Picard's face set into an unusually serious expression. "I'm talking about coming out. Together."

Felix couldn't bring himself to do anything but stare. A strong feeling of déjà vu washed over him. Though he had no idea what this conversation was about, some small part of Felix must have recognized what Picard was saying and felt very uncomfortable about it, because the longer Picard's hand sat on Felix's shoulder, the sharper his migraine became.

"Together," Felix echoed.

Picard jerked his hand back as if Felix had burnt it. "Not like that! I didn't mean together together, I just meant at the same time. To make it easier." When Felix didn't reply, Picard hunched his shoulders and gave Felix an awkward smile. "No offense. You're a good man, Felix, but you're a little young for me. I see you all on this ship more like little brothers and sisters than…you know. Sorry, but you're just not my type."

Felix closed his eyes and took a deep breath in a failed attempt to clear his head. "Picard, I'm sorry. I can see you're trying to tell me something really important, but I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't even know what 'fighting for the army' means."

"Oh, of course!" Picard tapped himself on the forehead. "I should have known you wouldn't recognize the Lemurian idiom. It just means that you like men."

"As in being altruistic? Loving mankind?"

"No, I mean as in…" He made an odd gesture with his hands. "You know." He stared at Felix. "Don't you? I mean, if you don't know about the other army, how do you know you're fighting for it?" Picard put his hand to his chin and stared at the floor. "I mean, I suppose it's possible that you could just know and not have to be told. I mean, if you're not interested in women, then you're just not interested in women. Unless, of course-"

Picard's eyes grew wider. "Oh. Oh, you meant you weren't interested in courtship!" His eyes met Felix's. "Then you're not..." He sunk his head in his hands. "Felix, I am so sorry."

"I forgive you?" Felix had long past given up trying to understand what his friend was talking about, so he had no idea what he was forgiving, but it seemed the right thing to say.

Picard spread his fingers so that one green eye peered out. "Um, Felix? Can you do me a favor? Can we pretend we never had this conversation?"

Felix nodded. Yes, he'd like that very much.

Picard picked himself up. "Okay, then in that case, I'll just let you rest. And I'll go…do something productive. I hope you and Sheba work things out." He stepped backwards into the bedpost. "Ack! And I hope you feel better. Maybe you should just take the day off and rest. Wait, I just said that."

Picard let out a strained laugh. "Maybe I should just leave before I make things more awkward. I'll see you around." He then sped out of the room, leaving Felix on his bed.

If Felix's head felt ten pounds lighter, he might have gone after Picard to ask what they were talking about and why it made Picard so nervous. But instead he decided to lay his pounding skull back on the pillow. If Picard was acting this strangely, who knows what the others were doing. Felix just didn't have the energy to deal with any strangeness right now. Maybe he should just follow Picard's advice and spend the day in bed.

* * *

_"Come on Felix, just try it! What have you got to lose?"_

_ Felix could think of many things he could lose by going out into the crowd of dancing villagers. His pride, for one thing. The last time he had danced was at Vale's harvest festival before Mt. Aleph erupted, and even then he'd done it poorly. He just couldn't understand how he was supposed to move, and when he tried imitating other people, he couldn't think of anything except how they natural they looked and how ridiculous he felt._

_He turned to his sister, who'd long ago lost her hair tie from a night's worth of twirling. The thick, humid air was making her hair spike out in every direction, so that she looked as if she were floating in water rather than standing on the cobblestones._

"_Jenna, you know I can't dance."_

_ "Can't, or won't?" Sheba pried. The candlelight of the buffet table reflected off her eyes, making them shine like jewels._

_ One of the villagers squealed as her partner spun her around in a complicated move that ended with her head three inches from the ground. "Both," he replied._

_ Picard cleared his throat. "Felix, you know that the Baragians are throwing this party for us, right? They already know that you're a strong warrior. I mean, they all watched us slay that dragon. They aren't going to lose their respect for you if you dance poorly."_

_ Felix looked out over the laughing villagers jostling against each other as they spun around with their partners. He certainly didn't want to offend them by spurning their show of gratitude, but twisting his body to a dance he couldn't follow in a crowd of people he didn't know wasn't his idea of a good time. Even if one of the villagers was patient enough to try and teach him, he'd probably annoy her by stepping all over her feet. Everyone would have a much better time if he just kept to the side and watched._

_ "I…"_

_ "Come on, Felix, pleeaaase?" whined Sheba, giving him her wide-eyed stare that Felix was finding increasingly difficult to say 'no' to these days. "I want to keep dancing, but all of the village boys are taken."_

_ He ripped his gaze away from Sheba's pleading eyes to look at the crowd. "So dance with Picard."_

_ "Sorry, no can do. I'm too tired, and besides, I think I've sprained my ankle," said Picard with the self-satisfied air of someone whose ankle was perfectly fine._

_ Sheba grabbed Felix's hand and tugged. "And I want to dance with you."_

_ He glanced back at his friend and got caught in her will-sapping stare once more. "I don't know the dance they're doing," he tried, but the excuse sounded weak, even to him._

_ "So we'll make up our own! Come on!" Sheba pulled him into the crowd, tugging him through the gaps between couples. When they reached the middle of the town square, she turned around and grabbed his other hand with a smile._

_ The experience was worse than he'd feared. He could barely hear the music over the shuffling of feet and chatter of the couples around him. The crowd was so dense that dancers kept ramming into his back, jostling him forward so that he stepped on Sheba's feet. At one point a couple stepped backwards in between him and Sheba, and he had to leap forward and clutch her wrist so that she didn't get swept away in the crowd._

_ Felix could see from her pout that Sheba was getting annoyed. He leaned forward and half-shouted at her that while he was grateful that she'd tried to teach him, they should probably head back to the buffet table and find a partner for her that knew how to dance. She shook her head and grinned. _

_ Felix felt a sharp gust at his feet which ruffled the skirts of the girls nearby. The surrounding couples snapped their heads towards them, and, seeing the cause of the gust, maneuvered a foot or two away, leaving Felix and Sheba in a small yet clear circle of floor._

_ "There, that's better," said Sheba. "We just needed a bit of room, was all. Now do what I do. Step with your left foot…"_

_ Before Felix could protest, his partner was rattling off instructions faster than he could think. By the time he followed one step, she was halfway through telling him about the next. He couldn't even focus on where he was stepping; all he could do was listen to Sheba's instructions and hope his body was following them. Evidently it was, as her instructions got slower and sparser, until eventually she just closed her mouth and smiled._

_ Felix waited for the next instruction, and when it didn't come, he asked, "What do I do next?"_

_ Sheba twirled under his hand, her body so light that it practically spinned itself. "Just keep dancing."_

_ Felix looked down and saw his foot move forward of its own accord. He had been dancing without even realizing it. He- Where was he supposed to step next? He tried to remember, but his mind was blank, and his feet had lost their momentum._

_ "Right foot crosses over," Sheba reminded him. She glanced up."You think too much, you know that?"_

_ "I thought that was a good thing."_

_ "Usually it is. But for dancing, you just have to-" she broke off her sentence to twirl again, "move. It's like fighting. You don't focus on where you step as you run towards the enemy, right? You just let your body tell you what to do. Otherwise all that planning just paralyzes you, and you get a sword in your chest."_

_ Felix followed Sheba's lead, trying very hard not to notice his feet. "But how am I supposed to memorize the dance if I can't think about it?"_

_ "Your body will do that for you. All you have to do is enjoy it," she answered. Something in Felix's expression made her laugh. "Don't worry so much. Just do what you feel is right, and everything will fall into place after that."_

* * *

"Felix, I know you're not actually asleep. Come on. We need to talk."

Felix opened his eyes to see the hazy red figure of his sister standing over his bed. He wanted to tell her that he hadn't been faking, that he'd been in the middle of a rather nice dream when she let herself into his room, but considering he was awake now, it was probably pointless to argue. Instead he pushed himself up and gave his sister what he hoped was a very tired, guilt-inducing stare. "Good morning Jenna."

Jenna plopped down on Picard's bed and rested her chin in her hands. "Good afternoon Felix."

Afternoon? Felix looked around his room and then remembered that he didn't have windows. But the candles were slightly shorter than before, and his sister wasn't the type of person to play with someone's head.

Felix examined his sister to see what kind of mood she was in and was met with a stony stare. He could tell she was trying hard not to twist her hair, a tic she had whenever she was nervous, but he also knew from the way she bounced her leg that her patience was wearing thin. He decided to wait and see how long it would last.

Not long. "_Well_?" said Jenna, leaning forward with her eyes wide.

He leaned against the side wall. "Well what? You're the one who said we needed to talk."

His sister glared. "Don't act smart with me, Felix. You know why I'm here."

He sighed. Usually his sister was fairly patient when he didn't want to talk, but apparently she wasn't going to let him off so easily this time. If that was the case, his best option was to just be as open as possible and get the conversation over with. "I don't know what you want me to say. Sheba confessed to me. I turned her down."

Jenna crossed her arms. "Felix, we both know there's more to the story than that. It's obvious you have feelings for her."

"Really. Wish someone would have informed me of that before Sheba confessed to me."

Jenna stopped bouncing her leg. "Are you saying this is my fault?"

"What? No, it's not anyone's _fault_, I just-" Felix's forehead began tingling, and he massaged it with the hopes of staving off another migraine. "Why would you tell Sheba I loved her?"

"Because it's obvious. I mean, remember when Sheba got sick outside Sulhalla's Gate, and Saturos and Menardi wanted to make her walk, but you insisted on carrying her all the way to Idejima? Or the time that creepy sailor in Madra started hitting on her and you scared him off with psynergy?"

"Well of course I did those things. Just because I don't love Sheba doesn't mean I don't care for her."

His sister leaned back and tilted her head. "All right, what about when you gave her that gigantic silver bracelet for her birthday?"

"I found that in a chest the week before. And it was your idea to get her birthday gifts."

"That doesn't change the fact that her bracelet was worth more than all our weapons combined at the time. Come on, Felix. The pampering, the over-protectiveness, even the way you _look _at her would be enough to tip someone off."

Felix blinked. Someone had mentioned the look _again._ Had he really looked at Sheba as lovingly as everyone said? True, he'd always had a special…affection for her, ever since they met. It didn't make much sense for him to feel that way, since they'd only known each other for several months, and their personalities were so different. But something about her just made him feel calm, like everything had a chance of turning out all right.

Perhaps Sheba was right. Maybe Felix did love her, and he'd just needed someone to point it out to him. It wouldn't be the first time he'd been wrong about that sort of thing.

No. No no no. Absolutely not. He couldn't be in love with Sheba and not know it, that wasn't _possible_. And even if it was, Felix had made a promise. A promise he would keep, even if it meant hurting Sheba's feelings.

"Felix?" asked Jenna with a smirk.

He shook his head. He needed to focus. If he started doubting himself now, his sister would catch on and read more into his silence than was actually there. "Jenna, why would I lie about this?"

She frowned and wove her hands behind her head. "I don't know. That's what's bugging me. I can't figure it out."

"Maybe there's nothing to figure out."

"Maybe, but..." She looked to the side and started twisting her hair.

"But what?"

"Well, it's just," Jenna glanced at Felix and then looked back to the side. "you have a habit of making things a lot more complicated than they need to be."

Felix followed his sister's gaze to a round piece of green wood tucked halfway behind his dresser. His old mask. He turned back to his sister and glared. "That was a completely different situation. In case you don't remember, I wasn't exactly free to speak."

Jenna waved her hands in front of her. "Yeah, I know, I know. Saturos and Menardi blackmailed me into silence too. But you have to admit that our quest would have been a lot easier if we'd been able to tell Isaac and Garet the truth about why we were fighting them instead of letting them think you were a traitor."

"It's also a lot easier to judge from hindsight."

"But it still would have been better, don't you think?"

He crossed his arms. "I suppose."

Jenna leaned forward and put one hand on her brother's knee. "Felix, you know you can tell me anything, right? I won't judge you for it. You can trust me."

He stared at his sister for a moment and wondered if she knew his secret. No, probably not. If she knew, she'd have told Garet by now, and Garet definitely would have confronted Felix by now if he knew. He considered telling her, but her knowing wouldn't change anything. The truth would only make things worse.

She removed her hand. "Or not."

"Jenna-"

His sister gave him a wide, strained smile that made her eyes droop. Felix had seen a lot of ones like it on this trip. "I'm not mad. Honest. I trust you have a good-" she bit her lip, "Well, maybe not a good reason, but good intentions at the very least." She pushed herself off of Picard's bed and walked towards the door. "And maybe I'm completely wrong. Maybe you really don't like Sheba in that way, and last night really was my fault."

Felix opened his mouth, but held his tongue when his sister looked over her shoulder. "But if it isn't," she said softly, "If you love Sheba, but have some melodramatic reason why you can't let yourself be happy with her…I think Sheba at least deserves to know what that reason is."

* * *

Author's Note: Poor Felix. It's bad enough having a migraine without having people barging into your room accusing you of being a tease. It only goes downhill from here.

About the first scene: I've obviously never written anything like that before, so it might have been confusing. In case it wasn't clear, Picard thought Felix rejected Sheba because he was homosexual. Picard admitted that he was also homosexual and offered to help Felix explain his situation to the others. When Picard realized that he'd misinterpreted Felix's words and that his friend doesn't even know what homosexuality is, he got embarrassed. Personally, though, considering that Felix has spent his entire life in two very isolated towns, I'd be surprised if he and the others DID know what homosexuality was. Most of the Valean kids didn't even know what the ocean was, and I doubt Kraden would have focused too many of his lessons on sexual orientation.

Just to be clear, Picard was telling the truth about not being interested in anyone on the ship. Because he's, what, 120 years old? And everyone except Kraden and Felix is underage. Regardless of sexual orienation, a romance between Picard and anyone on the ship would be a bit questionable (Don't even get me started on Nowell.). That said, just because he isn't involved in the main triangles doesn't mean he won't get his share of the spotlight. Also, I'd like to put it out there that anything I do with Picard, like make him a tidy person, is _characterization of an individual, _NOT a commentary on the homosexual community_. _So if one of the characters says or thinks something offensive, please assume it's either part of Weyard's culture or bad writing on my part.

About the second scene: No, there was no Baragian village with a dragon. I just made that up for the hell of it.

About the third scene. Yes, I know I'm breaking a rule of good writing by teasing you with Felix's "secret". Don't worry, you should be able to get enough clues within the first few chapters to piece together why Felix is being difficult. Then again, this is the guy who spent most of the story avoiding his childhood friends because he thinks they won't understand that the Proxians are blackmailing him. I actually made the whole "blackmailing Felix into silence" thing up just to make things more realistic: the canon never actually gives a reason for why Felix doesn't just tell Isaac about the Proxians' blackmail. Felix could have stalled while pretending to work towards lighting the lighthouses, and Isaac and company could sneak into unsuspecting Prox with their flying ship and rescue the parents. Or even if telling Isaac's group didn't change the fact that they had to fight each other, it still would have made Isaac and Garet feel better to know their childhood friend hadn't turned traitor for kicks. So in my headcanon, the Proxians explicitly ordered Felix and Jenna not to tell Isaac that his dad was still alive. Why? Who knows. Maybe they were waiting for the right time to blackmail Isaac with the knowledge, or they wanted to keep Felix and Isaac as enemies so Felix didn't turn on them.

Then again, I consider Felix the type of antihero who accepts that people will hate them and doesn't even try to explain himself. The kind of guy who takes his problems all on his own because he's too nervous that asking for help will backfire. If you've played any other RPGs, you know the kind of guy I'm talking about. It's like a syndrome with RPG villains: the "I have a tragically good reason for causing chaos but won't tell you until after you've stabbed me in the chest" syndrome. I think if alchemy hadn't turned out to be a good thing, Felix would have ended up dying as one of those villains. Personally, I think Alex is probably going to turn out as one of those villains too...

Okay, I am rambling way too much. The explanations for the chapter are almost half as long as the chapter itself, and written in a tenth of the time. I should really just freaking post already.


	5. A Bad Plan

All right. This chapter's a little shorter than I planned, but it turns out I'll be busier than I thought this summer, so I'm not sure how much writing I'm going to get done in the next couple of weeks. I'd originally planned for this chapter to cover 80% of the journey to Vale, but I realized that that would be ridiculously long, which would mean you wouldn't get a chapter till around September. Plus, my original plan was to have each member of the party come and talk to Felix so you could get a look at the relationship dynamics on the ship (and to poke fun at the canon's tendency to have every character voice their opinions in rapid succession). I've decided that as fun as it would be to harass Felix, you probably don't want to read 7 conversations in a row in the same room. So I've decided to do a bit of shifting, so that some conversations take place in Vale, and some conversations (like the one between Karst and Agatio below) take place earlier.

* Edit 8-8-11: I edited the chapter so that the two scenes are clearly separated.

* * *

Deep inside Angara's northern forest, two dark figures hunched around a small, flickering fire. At first glance, it appeared to be a slightly oversized campfire, but if one were to look within the flames, one would be hard pressed to spot what exactly was burning. The fire had no wood at its base, no twigs, no leaves, not even a handful of dry grass. The flames simply flowed out of a small patch of dirt, like an underground stream that had found its way to the surface.

Agatio leaned back against an oak and let what little heat the fire provided wash over his skin. He'd hoped that the southern lands would be a bit warmer than this. True, Angara's winter was much milder than the weather in Prox, where any exposed water froze within seconds and fist-sized hail was a regular occurrence. But the Valeans had made Angara sound like paradise, a fertile land where the air was hot as steam and you could walk outside with only one shirt. They'd failed to mention that such weather only lasted a quarter of the year.

For most of Agatio's life, he'd assumed that a country's weather was unchangeable, and that whether the days were sunny or snowy depended on where you were born. Alex had tried to explain that in the lower continents the weather depended on time as well as place, and that they were headed south during "fall", when Angara was growing colder. Karst, of course, had called the water adept a twisted liar, assuming that Alex was playing on their ignorance for his own amusement. Agatio hadn't believed the water adept either until he saw the leaves start falling from the trees.

The winter had been nothing to worry about, of course. The humans had called it one of the worst in ages, but they were so frail that even a foot of snow scared them into hiding in their houses. Then again, as a Proxian his scaly skin was thick enough to withstand all but the coldest temperatures, so Agatio had no way to tell if the humans were simply being cowards or if their flesh really had been in danger of freezing off. All he knew was that this so-called winter had been the warmest weather he'd ever known.

Still, it was a bit of a disappointment to walk into a forest full of unpetrified trees ripe for the burning and then discover that the wood was still wet from the melting snow. Thankfully, all Mars adepts needed to make fire was a bit of psynergy and concentration. Karst had been on edge for days, so Agatio had gracefully allowed her to be in charge of the fire's upkeep.

Actually, he was surprised Karst hadn't asked him to switch shifts yet. True, she was only making a small campfire, but they'd been resting for several hours now and the fire hadn't even shrunk. If Agatio had tried to use psynergy for that long, he would at the very least have a headache. Then again, Karst had always found the cold more irritating than Agatio did, so maybe draining her psynergy was more comfortable for her than sitting in the snow without a heat source.

"Agatio?" Karst spoke to him from across the fire, her legs spread out in front of her.

He stuck his hand out towards the flames. "All right, I'll take over."

"No, no, I'm fine. I was just wondering…" She flung her head back to look at the grey sky. "How long do you think it'll take for us to make it to the Northern Reaches?"

"I guess probably another month. That's how long it took us to get from Prox through the Goma Range, so it makes sense that we'd take about the same amount of time to get back." Agatio watched as the snow melted around Karst's fingertips. That answer hadn't satisfied her. "But then again, Prox isn't where you want to go, is it?"

Karst turned her head back towards Agatio, her red eyes reflecting the light of the fire. She didn't look angry, though, which was good. Ever since their defeat at the Jupiter lighthouse, Agatio had had to be very careful when he brought up anything to do with Isaac and his little cronies. Karst hadn't taken Felix's betrayal very well, and had developed a habit of burning whatever was nearest in order to keep her anger at manageable levels.

"No. It isn't."

Actually, both Karst and Agatio had taken extra care to avoid discussing any plans beyond "going north". Technically, their mission was over. Felix had taken the Mars Star and was headed to activate the last lighthouse. The Valean threat had been neutralized, as Isaac and his friends had been converted to the Proxian cause. As long as no other obstacles arose, their combined power would be more than enough to save the world. All that Karst and Agatio had to do was return home and let Alex's plans fall into place.

"Alex isn't going to like that," he chided.

"Then he can have the grave next to Isaac's."

Agatio smiled in spite of himself. He wouldn't mind taking a part in that. Most of Prox considered the water adept to be their savior, the man with the scheme that would restore their lost empire. But Agatio knew better. In Prox, he'd been humble and cooperative, but once they'd left the confines of the village, Alex had treated him and Karst like dogs, brutes to set against his enemies rather than people with the ability to think. He cared nothing for Prox, as long as his pawns completed his agenda. And Agatio suspected that Alex's agenda wasn't entirely in Prox's interests.

"So where would these graves be located?"

Karst's eyes flared. "Deep in the core of the lit Mars star. Just like Menardi and Saturos."

"You want to fight them at the Mars lighthouse?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Is that a problem?"

"Well, it's just…" Agatio paused. He had been about to say that it was probably bad luck to fight the adepts there when their last battle in a lighthouse had gone so badly. But he knew Karst wouldn't take that remark too well, so instead he asked, "Shouldn't we wait until they finish their task first?"

Karst clenched her teeth into a grin. "You mean my sister and Saturos's task? The one the elders had to blackmail Felix into helping us with?" She leaned forward. "Come on, Agatio. You've known Felix for three years. Do you honestly think that twig could master the Mars Lighthouse? I'll be surprised if he survives the trip."

"And if he does? What would you do?" He hated bringing bad memories up for Karst, but he had to know. He couldn't afford her getting second thoughts like on Jupiter Lighthouse.

Karst stopped smiling. "If he gets in my way," she mused, staring into the fire, "I'll kill him."

"Are you sure? You two were close, as I recall."

"That's why I said if."

The two watched the flames lick at the air. Agatio cleared his throat. "Wouldn't it be easier to wait and ambush them when they returned to Vale? Less defenses, less risks."

"Sure, if we knew where it was. That would be better, actually. Show them what it's like to watch your home crumble around you," she muttered, leaning back. "But it's a hidden village. It's not going to be on any maps."

"What about reinforcements then? We could head back to Prox, tell them-"

"You don't have to come if you don't want to." Karst stared at him from across the fire, her head tilted lazily to one side. Her body was loose, but it had a tense aura around it, as if her muscles were struggling to stay relaxed.

Agatio felt a prickling heat rise in his chest. "Don't insult me," he found himself snarling. "Saturos and Menardi were my closest friends. We may not have shared blood, but we were still family. I want to see those brats burn just as much as you do."

Karsts' eyes narrowed. "Then why the excuses?"

"They're not excuses! They're just…thoughts." Agatio tried to think of how he could explain what he was thinking. He wasn't lying when he said he wanted revenge. And he knew that as long as he and Karst didn't hold back this time, they could roast every last one of those little traitors into ash. But…what if something happened during the battle? What if they killed all eight of those kids, but died in the process? It was highly unlikely, true, but then again, they'd thought victory had been certain back on the Jupiter lighthouse as well. Only a handful of fire adepts in the world were strong enough to climb the lighthouse, so the Mars Star would likely be lost for years if they failed.

He wanted revenge. He wanted it with his whole body. But he wasn't quite prepared to risk the world to get it.

"Look," he explained, "I'm just saying a lot's at stake. There's eight of them now, so we have to take them seriously."

"You think I don't know that?" she shouted, slamming her hand into the snow. "The humans have always had the upper hand. That's why we need to fight them at the lighthouse. Our psynergy will be strongest there, and we know the terrain."

He blinked. He hadn't realized Karst had thought that far. He certainly hadn't.

She flashed him a satisfied grin. "Now who's insulting who?"

Agatio felt himself relax. It was nice to know Karst hadn't completely lost herself to rage. She was still thinking things through. "All right, all right. I can see you've thought a lot about this. But how are we going to catch up to them? We're fast, but I don't think we can outpace a flying ship."

Karst leaned forward and began tracing figures in the snow. "We don't have to. From what I hear, Isaac is notorious for getting sidetracked. He'll probably visit two or three villages before he gets anywhere important. If we head straight towards the lighthouse, we should make it there in time to set up an ambush."

"Or…"

She looked up. "Or?"

"What if we followed them to one of these towns? We wouldn't have the elemental advantage, true, but two of those brats are also Mars adepts, so I don't think that would help us too much. Plus, we'd get our revenge much sooner." _And if we failed…the Mars Star would be in a place our allies could actually reach._

Karst stared down at her lines in the snow. "True…but how would we know which town they were in?"

Agatio grinned. "They travel in a flying ship. Somebody has to have seen them."

She paused for a second of thought, and then retraced her lines. The campfire shrunk a little as her attention focused on the snow in front of her. "So we'll ask around the local villages. See if anyone's spotted them."

"If no one has, we'll go straight to the lighthouse," he added.

"But if they have, then we'll go to the town," she said, shoving her finger into one of the circles she drew. "Wait until they're plundering the town or blackmailing the mayor or whatever those traitors do for fun…" The campfire withered a bit further, and the snow around Karst's finger began to melt. "Then we'll take back the star, raze the ship, and kill that scarfed bastard once and for all!"

The campfire disappeared, and the snow around Karst's finger went up in a puff of steam. The grass that had been frozen underneath the snow was now smoldering. She smiled. "Yeah, I like that plan."

* * *

Even before he knocked on Felix's door, Isaac had been expecting trouble. A little bit after lunch Isaac had asked Picard how Felix had reacted to the news that they were traveling to Vale, and Picard had scrambled up an apology, saying he hadn't quite gotten around to mentioning it and could Isaac tell him instead please? Judging from Picard's nervous rambling, something must have happened between him and Felix, but Picard didn't seem upset per se, so Isaac decided to leave well enough alone.

Apparently Felix wasn't in the best of moods, and Isaac doubted he'd be happy to learn that the group had made such a decision without him, especially since he and Isaac had agreed in Contigo that they'd make all of their important decisions together as co-leaders. But honestly, Isaac didn't know what else he could have done. It wasn't as if he could have paused the vote to go wake up Felix. Besides, just because Felix was a co-leader didn't mean Isaac had to ask permission for every decision, right?

Felix would understand. He might sulk for the next few days, but even he wouldn't grudge Isaac for taking charge while he was sick. Most likely he'd just drop a chilly reminder not to make a habit of making decisions without him and then shrug it off and get down to business. Once Isaac explained where they were headed and why, he doubted Felix would put up too much of a struggle.

What he hadn't expected was for Felix to refuse to go to Vale altogether. It didn't make any sense. Felix had been away from home for four years. Isaac thought he'd be the most excited out of everyone to have an excuse to visit. Didn't he miss Vale? Didn't he want to see everyone at home?

Though his friend tried his best to keep a straight face, Isaac could see that the answers were yes. But rather than acknowledge the questions, Felix sat up on his bed and asked one of his own. "In case you don't remember, the last time I was at Vale I didn't exactly leave on the best of terms. Do you really think it'd be a good idea for me to return after I've stolen the village's most precious artifacts?"

Isaac felt his eyes grow wide. "Is that what you were worried about? Felix, no one would blame you for that. I'm sure once we explain how the Proxians blackmailed you, everyone at home will forgive you." Felix raised an eyebrow. Isaac continued, "They're your friends, Felix. They'll be happy just to know you're alive."

His friend's mouth twitched into a wry smirk. "Wasn't that implied when you and Garet told everyone I helped steal the Elemental Stars?"

Isaac winced. "Sorry. I didn't mean to ruin your reputation. I was just so shocked to see you there with Saturos and Menardi that I had to tell people." He sat down on Picard's bed. "I thought since you'd shown your face that you didn't care who knew."

Felix shook his head. "That's what the mask had been for. So that everyone would still think I was innocent and, well…" His smile grew harder. "dead. But Saturos and Menardi decided it'd be 'safer' to have me reveal myself as a traitor. That way if I tried to escape, I'd have no one to turn to for help." His gaze shifted away from Isaac's. "At least, that's how I understand it."

The two sat there staring at the floor, listening to ship's walls creak. After a minute, Isaac gave up trying to think of something profound to say and simply replied, "Well, it didn't work."

Isaac saw his friend look up out of the corner of his eye. "What I mean to say is, I…I did hate you at first, but-" He winced. "Er, not hate. I had profound dislike, or disappointment, or…I don't know." He shook his head. "The point is, it didn't last forever. Garet and I never _wanted_ to fight you, even when we thought you were a traitor. And as soon as we found out what was going on, we were more than willing to help." He flashed what he hoped was an encouraging smile.

Felix sighed. "Yes, but I had to save your lives first in order to convince you I had good intentions."

"Well you did kidnap your own sister," Isaac snapped. "What were we supposed to think?"

The two sat in silence, holding each other's gaze. They didn't clench their jaws or ball their fists; they simply sat very still and locked eyes as the ship rocked ever so slightly back and forth. Isaac looked away first, hunching his shoulders and mumbling, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

Felix interrupted him. "No, it's my fault. Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories. I was just trying to make the point that I don't believe the people at home will forgive me as easily as you think." He slid his legs over the edge of his bed so that his feet were planted on the ground. "I just want to be careful. It's going to be hard enough to convince the townspeople to hand over Vulcan's Greaves without adding my issues into the mix."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, unless Vale sent some more adepts out to hunt me down, you, Garet, Jenna, and Kraden are the only people who've been outside the village in years. None of them have seen the world like you and I have. They don't know the state it's in. They think all the other villages are just as happy and prosperous as Vale, and that Alchemy's some evil, world-destroying force that they can lock away forever. They want Alchemy to disappear. That's why they hid the Elemental Stars."

Isaac crossed his legs and frowned. "I know that. I used to think that way too, remember? But the maps are proof that the world is dying without psynergy. Once they see the maps and hear our story, they're sure to cooperate. They want to save the world just as much as we do, after all."

The other adept opened his mouth to say something, but then set it into a thin line.

Isaac leaned forward. "Felix?" His friend didn't respond. "Felix. Do you know something?"

His friend closed his eyes for a moment, then reopened them, staring intently into the space between the beds. "Back when I was traveling with Saturos and Menardi, they told me a story." He glanced at Isaac, who nodded for him to continue.

"Four years ago, Proxian envoys came to Vale and told our council of elders that the world was dying. They said that in order to save it, they needed the council to hand over the stars so they could reignite the lighthouses. The council refused, accusing the Proxians of using trickery to try and take the stars for their personal gain."

"The envoys came again and again, but the council turned them away each time. Finally, Prox's council decided diplomacy was futile, and that if they were to save the world they'd have steal the stars. They sent their best warriors to infiltrate Sol Sanctum, but since the warriors had no one to guide them through the temple, they set off a trap," Felix looked up, "which caused Mt. Aleph to erupt."

Isaac didn't know how to react to that story. Prox had been Vale's enemy since ancient times, so of course the council of elders wouldn't trust them with the Elemental Stars. But surely they would have guessed that the Proxians wouldn't stop at a simple 'no'. If they'd posted sentries around the Sanctum, or warned the townspeople to be on the lookout for thieves, they might have stopped Saturos and Menardi from ever entering the Sol Sanctum. The Proxians would have never set off the trap. Mt. Aleph wouldn't have erupted. People would still be alive.

"Are you sure Saturos wasn't playing with your head? Feeding you stories to make you think he was the good guy?"

Felix nodded his head. "I thought that too at first. But when I watched his face as he told it...that was one of the few times I'd ever seen him openly angry." Felix looked up. "I'm not sure if you remember this, since you only talked to him a handful of times, but Saturos was the kind of person who was always smiling. Especially when he was lying."

Isaac remembered. During their battles, Saturos always had a loose, carefree smirk on his face, as if he and Isaac were chatting over dinner rather than stabbing each other in the chest. Even the man's corpse had worn that insanely wide grin, all the way down into Venus Lighthouse's core.

"I'm not saying I'm good at reading people," said Felix, "and maybe I'm just being gullible, but when Saturos told me that story, it…sounded true."

As much as Isaac hated to admit it, the story sounded true when Felix told it too. The two sat in silence, lost in their own thoughts. Isaac leaned back. If he listened hard, he could just hear the waves past the groaning of the ship's wood. The sound made his body feel heavy, and if Felix hadn't been watching him he might have laid down on Picard's bed and taken a nap. But there was still some business to take care of first before he could rest.

"All right, but what about Vale?"

Felix jolted out of whatever thoughts he was having. "What?"

"I mean, whether or not the council already knows about Weyard dying, we still need to convince them to give us Vulcan's Graves." Isaac sat back upright. "Or do you want me to go into Vale with the others and get the artifact without you?"

Felix sat up, eyes wide. He looked almost eager, if such a word could ever be applied to him. "Would you?"

Isaac blinked. He'd meant for that line to be sarcastic, but Felix looked so hopeful that he wasn't quite sure he should take the offer back. "All right, but what should I tell the townspeople about you? Should I say that we still haven't found you, or that you're dead, or what?"

Felix's face fell back into its usual guarded stare. "Whatever you think is best."

"What if something happens? How will I contact you?"

"I'll be guarding the ship. Just send one of the Jupiter djinni to come get me."

Isaac bit the inside of his lip. "I don't think we're going to be able to afford to send djinni every time I need your opinion on something."

"Then don't." Felix looked down at his feet. "Sorry, I know this is a lot to ask. But I wouldn't insist if I didn't think it was the right decision."

Isaac pushed himself off the bed. "You're sure you want to sit this one out?" he asked, more for formality's sake than any doubt about what the answer would be.

Felix nodded. "From now until we leave Vale, you don't have to ask me about a single decision. You can make them all yourself." He grinned, more openly this time. "Try not to make too many bad ones."

* * *

Author's comments:

1. Wikipedia is sort of vague on capitalization. Of course it always capitalizes Elemental Stars and Elemental Lighthouses, but when it refers to just "stars", it waffles between capitalization and lower case. I'm going to consistently use lowercase when talking about lighthouses and stars in general, because that makes for easier reading. If I ever refer to the stars in the sky or to beach lighthouses, I'll try to make the meaning clear via the context.

Agatio doesn't sound too intellectual in this chapter. In canon, he does use the word "ragamuffins", but I can't write that word with a straight face, so instead I just tried to make it clear that he's not just a musclehead. Because while a hulking dragon man is intimidating, a hulking dragon man who can outsmart you is scary. And villains need to be scary.

3. I say Felix has been gone for four years because I'm assuming his travels have taken over 12 months. Three years in Prox plus one year on the road equals four years from home.

case you couldn't tell from the fact that I've added Vulcan's Greaves, this story falls into sort of a parallel canon. I picture this happening just before Felix and company head to the lighthouse. In this story, Felix stole back the Mars Star from Karst and went on his way. If I'd left the star with the Proxians, they would have gone on to the Mars Lighthouse as planned and we wouldn't have any villains lurking around for shenanigans in Vale. Also, in this story the Valeans are consciously guarding the Elemental Stars. Wikipedia tells me that in the canon, none of the villagers knew what was in the Sol Sanctum and they simply guarded it to thank the gods for giving them Psynergy. I don't remember if that's accurate or not, but it doesn't matter because I'm not writing in that canon.

I don't want to say that I'm making everything up, because I'm not. Things like the Proxians trying diplomacy with Vale really did happen. In other cases, like Saturos and Menardi's reasoning for making Felix take off his mask, you should assume that you're reading a particular character's perspective on events, which is an addition to the canon's perspective. The Proxians' primary reason for making Felix reveal his identity was still to provide "insurance" that Jenna would be safe, but they also wanted to ensure that Felix wouldn't have a chance to team up with Isaac and turn against them. And some things, like the Proxians not understanding the concept of seasons, are total guesswork. If you're confused as to whether or not something's canon, ask me, ask Wikipedia, or use common sense.

(FYI, the dancing villagers weren't from Izumo. I'd considered it, but in the canon Felix and his party give all the credit for the dragon-slaying to Susanoo, so it wouldn't really make sense for the Izumo villagers to hold a party in their honor.)

next chapter will have action, I "promise". And by promise, I mean predict, but with slightly more guilt involved if I'm wrong.

4. Thank you, everyone who reviewed! Your reviews are the carrots that keep me on the finger treadmill that is my keyboard...and prevent me from writing atrocious metaphors like that one.


	6. Wet Omen: part 1

AN: Okay, I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is that I've been so busy this summer that the exhaustion finally caught up with me and I've made myself sick. (Or it could have been food poisoning, but I prefer to say it's exhaustion because it makes me sound like a really hard worker.) This means that the 8000 word chapter I was planning to post by the end of the summer is no longer possible.

The good news is, I just happened to finish editing a good-sized chunk of text before I got sick, and the part I've written has a nice juicy cliffhanger. So instead of making you wait indefinitely for the entire scene, I'm going to post this smaller chapter so that if school completely swamps me (which it most likely will) you'll have something to tide you over until winter break.

So...here it goes.

* * *

Isaac leaned over the ship's railing, trying to find his reflection in the sea. The sea was choppy today, though, so the most he could spot was the occasional flash of yellow before a wave collapsed into froth and blocked his vision. A faint shadow with a long neck swam under the ship. It was most likely a turtle dragon. They sometimes grazed on the algae clinging at the bottom of the ship. They could be pretty fierce, especially since they liked to fight with other monsters, but they only attacked if the adepts disturbed their feeding. Isaac ignored the shadow and tried to find the spot where he last saw his reflection. A stiff gust blew past, and Isaac loosened his scarf to get some much-needed air down his neck.

"Isaac!"

He looked up and searched the deck for the voice. The ship's deck was divided into three sections, with the sections on each end elevated by about ten feet. Each side had two sets of stairs leading to the higher levels and a door which led below deck. The back section supported the crow's nest, and its door led to the kitchen and the boys' rooms. The front section sported the helm, and its door led to Kraden's study, the girls' room, and the lower levels. The middle section just had the dining table, barrels of cargo, etc. None of the areas had any sign of people, though, so where-

"Over here, Isaac." Picard poked his head out from the left door. "I just wanted to warn you that the ship's getting pretty close to the coast, so I'm going to bring her into flight fairly soon. Try not to lean too far over the edge when we lift off, all right? We wouldn't want you getting in an accident just before you got home."

Isaac laughed and assured his friend that he'd hold onto the railing. Picard went downstairs, and Isaac turned back to the ocean.

He was starting to have doubts about going back to Vale. It wasn't that he was nervous about being the only leader. He'd led his friends across the world, so taking charge of a mission in his hometown shouldn't be too difficult. The fact that the Vulcan's Greaves might be cursed didn't bother him either. He'd come across a lot of cursed weapons on his journey, so he knew that as long as you didn't use them, they couldn't hurt you. All Isaac had to do was take the greaves to a priest, and then the artifact would be as safe to use as his own sword.

Maybe Felix's story had scared him more than he'd thought? But even if Saturos had been telling the truth, it hardly meant the council of elders would turn away Isaac and Garet. Hearing a story of doom and catastrophe from your centuries-old enemies was one thing, but having your mayor's grandson hand you proof that the world was ending was quite another. Surely the council of elders would be glad to help once they learned the truth. Isaac couldn't imagine them doing otherwise.

Mostly Isaac just felt an odd sense of dread, which was completely stupid on his part. Vale had been his home for seventeen years. The promise of returning there had been all he could think about the first few months of his and Garet's journey. Two weeks in he'd gotten so homesick that he made himself physically ill, and he cost their journey half a day just throwing up in the bushes. If Jenna knew how many times he'd nearly given up and run back...

Maybe dread wasn't the right word. The feeling was more a combination of guilt and anticipation. Going home before he finished his quest felt wrong somehow, like skipping to the end of a book or biting into a piece of pie before it finished cooling. He was afraid that if he went home now, it wouldn't be ready for him. As if by arriving too early, the experience wouldn't be quite as good as if he'd waited. Or worse, his return home would be exactly what he dreamed, but because he cheated to get there, he wouldn't get to keep his prize.

He'd tried once before, to return home before he'd earned the right. After the send-off ceremony, he and Garet had been walking through their neighbors' fields to the village limits. Isaac hadn't been able to stop wondering why his mother hadn't come to the ceremony, and Garet had noticed his somber mood. He'd told Isaac that leaving Vale in such a gloomy mood wasn't a proper way to start their adventure, and offered to wait by Farmer Dercha's cabbage field while Isaac said goodbye to his mother.

Isaac had felt more than a bit silly, jogging up the hill to his house less than twenty minutes after the town had gathered to see him off. Most of the townspeople were still standing in the square, listening to one last speech from the mayor. Isaac took the back roads through the woods though, just in case anyone had snuck off early. He didn't want anyone to see him and think he'd lost his nerve already.

He remembered walking down the footpath, soaking in every detail he could so that the memory of his house would stay sharp. Knocking on the door. Calling his mother's name.

He heard his mother shuffle to the door. Her voice was barely loud enough to hear through the wood. "Who is it?"

Isaac stepped closer to the door and into the strip of shade cast by the cottage. "_I-it's me_," he croaked, the words barely making it past his throat. His mother was silent, and Isaac cursed his weak voice. He swallowed and tried again. "It's me, Isaac. You…you didn't come to see us off, so I thought I'd come to you."

He stared ahead, trying to find the spot where his mother's eyes would be, so that when she opened the door they'd be the first thing he'd see. He waited, and when the door didn't budge he forced himself to shout. "I wanted to say goodbye-"

"You're mistaken," she said. Her voice was only a whisper, but it sounded louder than Isaac's shouting.

He stepped back as if he'd been struck. "What?"

"My son swore to me that he would only return once he'd rescued Jenna and recovered all four Elemental Stars. I know my son, and he wouldn't break his promise so easily."

Isaac gripped the edge of his scarf and gave it a quick tug to draw it tighter. He vaguely remembered making such a promise to his mother in the whirlwind of packing and goodbyes. But he'd thought that it was just her way of telling him not to worry about her, of making sure he committed to the mission. He hadn't realized she'd take it so…so _literally. _"Mom, I-I wasn't breaking the promise. Garet and I haven't even left yet."

He could practically hear his mother shaking her head. "The town saw off my boy this morning." She paused, and then whispered, "I watched from my window."

_So she was watching. _Isaac felt himself relax, just a little. "But we haven't really left Vale yet. We've only just made it to the outskirts of the farmlands, so really we haven't started our journey yet."

"Isaac promised."

"Yes, but he- I mean I- it..." Isaac closed his eyes and took a shaky breath. "I just wanted to say goodbye." He tried to get a glimpse inside the house through the window, but the curtains were drawn. "Please?"

"No! You can't! I mean he can't. I mean…I…" Her voice sounded thick and shaky, as if she were trying to hold back a sob. "I can't. I wanted to go down to the ceremony so badly, to just smile and wave the boys off with everyone else. The Jerras were able to do it for Garet. But I…I can't stop crying. I can't get Kyle's face out of my mind." She took a ragged breath. "I saw it just before the boulder hit. It wasn't scared or shocked or anything, just blank. Accepting. And then he was gone, and I felt like my heart stopped beating. And now, now-"

She started gasping in between words. "My baby boy is leaving. With that same look on his face. And I can't watch it again. I can't. I can't watch…my baby boy…" She sobbed. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Your son understands," said Isaac. Or maybe he apologized. Or maybe he'd stumbled across the yard and left her crying next to the door. He didn't remember.

The ship shuddered. Isaac felt the hum of psynergy through the railing and looked down. The water was slowly receding down the hull. The heavy feeling in his stomach told him that he was rising, but his eyes told him that the world was sinking and that he was standing perfectly still. Nevertheless, he remembered his promise to Picard and held the side of the ship.

"Hey Isaac!"

Isaac gasped and whipped his head around. Jenna was thirty feet away, hanging off the ladder to the crow's nest. "You all right?" she called.

Isaac nodded his head. "You just surprised me, that's all. I thought everyone else was below deck."

Jenna climbed down the rest of the ladder. "Oh, heheh. Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I was just enjoying the view with Ivan, and I looked down and saw you with this weird look on your face. So I wanted to check and see if everything was, you know-" She stepped off the ladder and turned around to face him. "-okay."

He paused, and then flashed a smile up at her and nodded. She was still looking at him expectantly, though, so he added, "Everything's fine. Thanks."

Her eyebrows creased. For a second she looked like she was going to call him out for lying, but then her eyes softened and she grabbed the ladder with one hand. "If you're sure…"

Isaac nodded, perhaps a little too quickly. He felt a little guilty, shutting her out like this. Back in Vale, Jenna had been the person he usually went to when he was depressed or scared. Garet, while a great friend, just couldn't understand what it was like to lose a loved one. Jenna, on the other hand, was practically an expert on the subject, so Isaac often went to her for comfort, even though she'd lost three family members while he'd only lost one.

But they weren't in Vale anymore, and Isaac was a lot less selfish now. Complaining wouldn't change anything, and besides, what could Jenna possibly say? That it wasn't his fault that he misunderstood his promise? That his mother was selfish for not wanting to relive her husband's death? It wasn't Jenna's responsibility to come up with excuses for his behavior. She had enough things to worry about besides Isaac's relationship with his mother. Besides, if Isaac was going to be leader again, it was about time he started solving some of his own problems.

Jenna stared up at the crow's nest. "All right, if you don't need me then I guess I'll just, um, head back up and-"

Suddenly an ear-piercing shriek flooded the air. It sounded almost human, like seven or eight children screeching in a different pitch. Isaac and Jenna slapped their hands over their ears, and then the deck tilted. Isaac's feet slipped out from under him and he grabbed the railing just in time to keep from tumbling across the deck.

Isaac heard the crinkling sound of splintering wood as something tried to slam its way up the ship. The slope of the deck became slightly steeper with each thud, and some of the cargo boxes on the deck started to edge towards the water. With one hand still on the railing, Isaac unsheathed his sword and waited for whatever this thing was to reach the deck.

* * *

Sheba had been playing cards in the kitchen with Garet and Mia when the screaming started. Or howling, or screeching, or whatever that horrible noise was. Then the floor shifted underneath them, sending Garet tumbling into Mia and throwing Sheba backwards in her chair. The back of her seat hit the floor with a smack, and white spots danced into her vision.

She blinked a few times until she could see clearly, then pushed herself upright. The other two had already run out into the hall and were halfway up the stairs, so she stumbled after them, trying not to slide into the wall as she ran. She managed to overtake them, rushing out into the daylight.

The ship shuddered and tilted a bit more to the right. Sheba shifted her weight to keep from sliding, and out of the corner of her eye she saw a stack of barrels collapse. Before she could shout, eight of them crashed into the door behind her in an explosion of wood chips, powder and herbs. She turned around and swatted at the cloud of dust and leaves with her arms a few times before she thought to make a gust to blow it away. Once the debris was clear, she saw the top halves of Mia and Garet's heads peeking up from behind the debris.

She rushed up to the heap of wood and shouted, "Are you two all right?"

"We're fine, what about you?" Garet yelled back over the howling.

"I'm okay. Can you get through the door?"

The pile shuddered as Garet leaned his weight against it. A few wood chips tumbled off, but besides that the obstacle stayed in place. "Damn it, it's too heavy. Mia, Sheba, stand back. I'm going to try burning it away."

"Don't you dare!" Mia shouted. "Do you know what was in those barrels?"

Garet paused. "No, what?"

"I don't know, but what if Picard stowed our bombs in there? Do you really want to risk blowing up the ship just so we can get through the door?"

"But then how are we going to get on deck?"

"We'll have to go downstairs and come up on the other side. Sheba, is the other door clear?" Mia called.

She turned around quickly to check. She told them it was.

"And are you going to be all right by yourself until then?"

Sheba rolled her eyes, even though Mia probably couldn't see them over the debris. "I'll be fine. There aren't even any monsters out here yet."

"Then what the hell's capsizing the ship?" Garet shouted.

"I don't know. Let me go check."

"Wait, Sheba!" Mia cried. "It's not safe to go alone. Wait until Garet and I can-"

Sheba didn't hear the rest of Mia's warning, as she was already making her way to the right side of the ship. The shadow cast from the crow's nest made it hard to see where the deck was wet, but by carefully controlling her slide Sheba managed to make it to the bottom without slipping. When she got to the ship's railing, she gripped the side and leaned over as far as she dared.

Three quarters up the side of the ship, a rust-colored turtle dragon clung to the wood with its flippers. It screeched at the sky, baring its long algae-stained fangs, and then headbutted the side of the ship. As it drew its head out, it shook the splintered planks out of its hide with a shiver. Then it reached up and shoved one of its front flippers in the new hole, its back flippers barely trailing in the water. With a squeal the turtle dragon hauled itself further up the ship's hull, and the deck tilted again under its weight. Sheba spotted a ladder of similar holes in the ship and knew that if the it hadn't been floating above the ocean right then, it would have been half-sunk from the damage.

The turtle dragon stopped screeching as it stretched its neck, trying to bite the railing of the ship so it could haul itself onto the deck. Sheba started to prepare a lightning strike to try and shock the monster into letting go of the ship when she heard Isaac's voice.

"-eba! Sheba, up here!"

She turned around and saw Isaac hanging from the railing on the other side of the deck, waving his sword to catch her attention. Sheba felt her stomach drop. "Isaac! What are you doing up there? When the turtle dragon climbs up you're going to be right in the line of attack!"

"Turtle dragon?" He looked at his sword and frowned. "Can you tell me where it'll pop up? Maybe I can-"

Sheba heard Jenna's voice call from the other side of the crow's nest, "You're not that lucky, Isaac. Try to shuffle over here and we'll attack it from the side."

"Do I have time?" Isaac called to Sheba. The turtle dragon started screeching again, but it had been screaming for so long that its voice was starting to crack, so Sheba could still make out most of the words Isaac and Jenna were saying.

"I can make some," she shouted back. She turned to the crow's nest. Now that Sheba knew where Jenna was, it was easy for her to pick out her friend's silhouette behind the pole. "Jenna, is anyone else up here?"

"Yeah, Ivan's up - crow's nest."

Isaac looked up. "No, he-" The rest of his words cut out in the screeching.

"What?" Jenna shouted.

"He's not up there," Isaac yelled louder. "I don't see him."

Before Sheba could think about the implications of this news, she heard a clatter of footsteps coming up the opposite stairwell. She turned just in time to see four people pile into the doorway.

"Sheba?" Garet shouted. "Hey Sheba, we're here! And we found Felix and Picard!"

"Are the others up here with you?" Mia called. "Are they all right?"

Jenna waved her hand so the others could tell where she was. "We're fine, but Ivan-"

"I SAID I'M UP HERE!"

Sheba looked up. Ivan was dangling by his cloak three feet below the crow's nest like a criminal on a noose. His cloak was snagged on one of the knobs in the railing, and Ivan's weight had torn it into a zigzag of barely connected tatters. Most likely the force of the turtle dragon's first attempt to climb the top of the ship had thrown Ivan over the edge. He was lucky his cloak was such a sturdy material, otherwise he'd probably be freezing in the ocean right about now.

"Oh gods. Ivan, are you okay?" Picard yelled.

Ivan grabbed the cloak around his neck and pulled so that he could have the air to shout back, "I'm fine. As long as I don't move, the cloak shouldn't rip any more. Honestly, you should be more worried about yourselves." He pointed to the front of the ship. "You're about to get some company."

As if on cue, a handful of white crab-like creatures scrambled over the railing onto the portion of the deck above Felix and the others. They started shuffling around the helm towards the adepts, and others quickly popped up in their place. Garet peeked around the corner of the stairway and then leaned back against the wall. "Pincers? Seriously? Don't we have enough unwanted guests right now?"

Sheba wished she could say she was surprised. Pincers were scavengers, so they often attacked ships during monster fights with the hopes of snabbing some prey while the larger, tougher beasts provided the distraction. They were just like crabs, really, except they were knee-high, dusty white, and had a knack for popping a person's kneecaps with their over-sized claws. Assuming you didn't let them get too close to your legs, they weren't that tough individually; a few hits and they were dead. The problem was, they tended to fight in swarms, so if the colony was big enough, their threat level could change from nuisance to catastrophe pretty quickly.

She started climbing back up the deck, grabbing a loose rope or fallen debris whenever she felt like she was going to slip. When she reached the far set of stairs, she was about to climb up to help Jenna rescue Ivan when she heard Isaac shout. She looked over at a line of pincers scuttling down the railing, lining up for the chance to attack him. The front most pincer took a few tentative steps, then scurried back as Isaac swung his weight forward and slashed at it with his sword. Isaac fell back and then swung forward again in time to knock the pincer off the ship.

The ship shuddered and tilted. "Sheba!" She looked up to see Jenna already halfway up the crow's nest. "I'll take care of Ivan. Go help Isaac."

"Got it!" She climbed an extra few feet, then started making her way across the deck, holding the railing for support. The deck was now steep enough that her feet only supported about half her weight, the rest being held up by her arms. When she got within range, she cast a few small lightning bolts that easily knocked the monsters overboard.

Isaac turned around with a confused look on his face, but when he saw where the lightning had come from he grinned. "Thanks, I owe you one."

She winked. "I'll add it to your tab. So which side should we head to, Felix's or Jenna's?"

"Let's go help Jenna. I want to-"

Suddenly the turtle dragon let out a screech, and the deck dropped completely out from Sheba's feet. The turtle dragon was finally on deck, its front flippers draped over the side of the ship and its neck arching for an attack. There was no time to dodge, so Sheba gasped up as much air as she could and turned away.

A wall of water slammed her body into railing of the ship, crushing the air out of her lungs. The water went on and on, and all she knew was rushing and pressure and freezing pain. She couldn't see anything except streaks of blue speeding past her, but she was vaguely aware that she was still on the deck, if only because the railing was cutting into her ribs. She was going to drown on the deck of her own ship, assuming she wasn't crushed first.

Then the attack stopped, and Sheba felt her body lurch back and the railing slip out of her wet hands. Through the water in her eyes she saw a blurry Isaac reach his hand out to grab her. She reached out for his hand and missed, and as the world around her tilted she realized she was falling, probably to her death.

Then everything went black.

* * *

Author's notes:

About the ship. While writing this, I realized that I got the layout of the ship wrong. The ship in this story is constructed more like Eoleo's ship than Picard's. I tried to change it to look as much like Picard's ship as possible, but because of the mechanics of the fight, certain differences had to stay. The differences aren't much: The crow's nest is a pole rather than a tower, the ship has two doors rather than one, etc.

I'm way too tired to go on another one of my usual rants, so I'll just say thanks to DropofInk for editing this chapter and to everyone who reviewed.


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